A battle for grip dominated the opening practice session at the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday.
The newly laid track surface at Istanbul Park produced conditions described as worse than being in the wet as drivers tiptoed around the circuit.
In fact, only a few minutes in, Charles Leclerc caused a red flag after hitting a bollard on the pit entry, leaving the bolts holding it in place exposed.
Thoughts of taking the infamous Turn 8 flat-out were far from anyone’s mind with even maintaining traction on the straights sometimes being hard.
Turn 1 proved the worst part of the track as dampness on the surface made it near-impossible to carry speed through, while spins also became increasingly common through Turns 9, 10 and 12 as drivers began to push.
As a result, lap times were incredibly slow with Max Verstappen leading on a 1m35.077s, 10 seconds off the pole time from 2011 and only 3.6s ahead of Fernando Alonso’s FP1 time in the wet from nine years ago.
Seven seconds covered the top 17 drivers, with Daniel Ricciardo a further three seconds behind in 18th and George Russell 14 seconds off Verstappen in P20.
In between, Carlos Sainz was 19th, but the Spaniard’s session was interrupted by electrical issues which initially saw him called back into the pits, before stopping on track shortly after heading back out.
Given the lack of grip, Lewis Hamilton opted to only complete 12 laps, the joint-lowest of anyone with Sainz, in the hope that warmer temperatures in the afternoon will improve track conditions.
And after using only the medium and hard compound tyres during Practice 1, all the drivers will likewise hope the soft tyre can bring a level of performance that at least allows them to push.
Otherwise, a weekend that like that seen at Portimao appears on the cards, only quite a bit worse!
Full (but unrepresentative) results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
