Pirelli Friday Practice Report from Spa

(Pirelli Motorsport Media)

Formula One made it eagerly anticipated on track return at the Spa Francorchamps circuit following the month long Summer break in preparation for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

This weekend Pirelli have brought the Yellow walled Soft and White walled Medium compound tyre for weekend. The Belgian Grand Prix will take place over 44 laps and the Mercedes duo set the pace on Friday with Nico Rosberg setting his fastest time of 1m 51.577s using a set of the Medium compound tyre.

In this afternoon's session it was Lewis Hamilton's turn to top the times as the 2008 world champion set a fastest time of 1m 49.189s using a brand new set of the Soft tyre.

65 sets of the Pirelli Medium tyre were used over the course of the day while just 19 sets of the Soft tyre were used this includes the extra sets that the team's are allowed to use during the first half an hour of Free Practice 1.

There was not a big difference in the number of laps covered in a single run between the two compounds with 22 laps been completed on the Medium tyre while 19 laps were completed on the Soft tyre. Pirelli have stated the the gap between the two compounds is between 108 and 2 seconds. Speaking following the session Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said:

'It’s always a pleasure to be at Spa, which is one of the truly great race circuits of the world. This year, with reduced downforce, it has arguably become even more spectacular, with the cars sliding around more and drivers needing maximum bravery to take Eau Rouge flat-out. We experienced cool conditions today, which obviously had an effect on the performance of the tyres, but this looks set to remain for the rest of the weekend: perhaps with some rain on Saturday. Despite the cool temperatures, we experienced very little by way of graining, and there were no big surprises. We will now analyse all the data carefully, but from what we can see so far the tyres are behaving in exactly the way we would expect, and we are likely to see two pit stops during the race for most competitors.'

© Ben Johnston 2014