Berra: The drivers are already going faster than they were a year ago.

      At Pirelli they brought the "every other" compounds to the event for the second time this season – C1, C3 and C4 in the roles of Hard, Medium and Soft – and on Friday were able to assess the difference on a real track...

      Simone Berra, chief engineer: "As expected, all teams started the day on C1 tyres – they do not consider this compound a good option for the race, so they used it in the morning practice.

      The actual pace difference of the C1 tyres compared with the softer compounds proved smaller than the calculations suggested, but it remains significant. Nevertheless, the C1 tyres provided good grip and stability over long runs.

      Although the track temperature was higher than last year, the best laps on Soft in the first practice and in the sprint qualifying final were quicker, which can be explained by the technical progress of the cars. Max Verstappen's best lap in the sprint qualifying final was two tenths of a second faster than Norris's pole in the main qualifying in 2024.

      The speed gap between Medium and Soft was slightly larger than calculated, but on a sprint weekend, when teams have little time to optimise their setups, that is not surprising."