Belgian Grand Prix: Pirelli Friday quotes
Paul Hembery: "We've had a lot of rain so far this season - particularly in Britain and Germany - but in Spa today the rain was consistently some of the heaviest that we have seen over the course of one day. Under those circumstances it was very hard for us and the teams to learn anything much, and with many teams having brought important upgrades to the track, it was understandable that they did not want to risk them by going off, particularly as drier conditions are predicted for later in the weekend
"But with weather conditions in Spa always being notoriously unpredictable, experience of running in the wet will always be useful, especially as the drivers have all been stationary for five weeks over the summer break. It says a lot about the skills of the drivers as well as about the efficiency of our tyres that despite the monsoon-like conditions, none of the drivers hit anything or had any big problems.
"We've evolved the wet tyres from last year in order to improve resistance to aquaplaning and there's been a step forward, but some conditions are always going to be undriveable. It's just frustrating as everyone obviously wants to be out there and collecting information, but realistically nobody has learned much today. This clearly increases the workload for all the teams tomorrow during the hour-long free practice session before they head into qualifying, which is expected to be dry."
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