Pirelli Motorsport’s Mario Isola believes nothing unexpected occurred on Friday ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is very familiar to all the teams following winter testing less than three months taking place at the circuit.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport topped both sessions with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton but Isola them and Scuderia Ferrari will be very close for the rest of the weekend.
“There was nothing special to report from the first day of free practice in Spain, which is to be expected as this is a very familiar venue for the teams and drivers.
“The gap between the top two teams is very close, and Haas has also shown pace that gets close to them on occasions.”
Qualifying is key in Barcelona with overtaking so hard at this track and Isola believes Free Practice 3 could see the teams go searching for those tiny margins.
“As always in Barcelona, it’s about marginal gains – so preparing well for qualifying is particularly important, as this is not a track where it’s particularly easy to overtake.”
Isola says the gap between the hard and medium tyre compounds are slightly bigger than Pirelli expected but overall he is pleased with how the tyres are performing this weekend.
“We’re happy with the tyre performance here so far, with the only unexpected factor being a slightly bigger gap between hard and medium than we anticipated.”
