Although it’s still very early in the weekend, we can already see that there’s around a one second performance gap between supersoft and ultrasoft, while the soft compound appears to be an effective race tyre too. With many drivers taking full advantage of all three compounds available in their prerace selections, a number of different race strategies are possible, so gathering as much information as possible during free practice was paramount. The typical Spa weather, with rain falling during the long runs, made it hard to fully assess tyre degradation. While Hamilton’s fastest time on the ultrasoft was remarkable, close to the all time Spa record, initial projections of race pace seem closely matched between the frontrunners. As usual at Spa, it looks li ke we’re in for an unpredictable weekend.