Pirelli F1 Australian Grand Prix practices 18.03.2016: 2016 Australian Grand Prix – Practice Sessions Friday, March 18th 2016 - Rain writes off realistic Free Practice in Albert

2016 Australian Grand Prix – Practice Sessions
Friday, March 18th 2016




- Rain writes off realistic Free Practice in Albert Park

- Most of the running on Intermediates as track temperatures drop significantly



 Rain in both the first and second free practice sessions today meant that it wasn’t possible for the teams to complete much realistic running. As well as wet weather, there were high winds and cool conditions that resulted in track temperatures that were around 20 degrees less than those recorded yesterday.


Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “A bit of a washout – that’s how we can describe today I think! Most of the running was on intermediates this afternoon, which we are unlikely to see being used in the race, although there’s a chance they will be needed again tomorrow.


 While nobody really learned a lot today, there was some slick tyre running this morning, and we came close to the crossover point, enabling some useful data to be gathered about the intermediate.


What this all means is that a season full of far-reaching changes has got off to an even more unpredictable start than expected, which opens up even more variables for the rest of the weekend. We’ll have to wait a little bit longer now to find out the true effect of the 2016 tyre regulations.”



FP1 – TIMES              FP2 – TIMES          

1.Hamilton    1m29.725s    Soft new    1.Hamilton    1m38.841s    Interm. new
2.Kvyat    1m30.146s    Soft new    2.Hulkenberg    1m39.308s    Interm. used
3.Ricciardo    1m30.875s    Soft new    3.Raikkonen    1m39.486s    Interm. new


FP1 – BEST TIME PER COMPOUND

MEDIUM     Ricciardo    1m32.394s
INTERMEDIATE     Verstappen    1m40.075s
SOFT     Hamilton    1m29.725s



FP2 – BEST TIME PER COMPOUND

INTERMEDIATE     Hamilton    1m38.841s



LONGEST STINTS OF THE DAY

INTERMEDIATE     Wehrlein    13 laps
SOFT     Hamilton    9
MEDIUM     Haryanto    5



Tyre statistics of the day:

     Medium    Soft    Intermediate    Wet

kms driven *    127    562     1256    68
sets used overall **    7    26     21    13
highest number of laps **    6     9     23    1


 * The above number gives the total amount of kilometres driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.

 ** Per compound, all drivers combined.



Pirelli fact of the day: Jacques Villeneuve, who would go on to become 1997 world champion, made his Formula 1 debut at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix exactly 20 years ago, qualifying on pole but finishing second after his car picked up an oil leak.


Spotted in the paddock today: Alan Jones, 1980 world champion, who was commentating for Australian television. Jones is still the only Australian driver to have won the Australian Grand Prix, at Calder Park in 1980: a non-championship race, in which Jones drove his title-winning Williams FW07.
 
 
 
Anthony Peacock - photo Pirelli