Friday analysis – Ferrari lead Mercedes chase

Conditions remained dry but cool in FP1, and dry despite rain clouds in FP2, but times fell away in the latter as the temperature rose from an initial 28 degrees Celsius, peaked at 31, and then dropped to 27. But at least everyone got enough running to figure out the vagaries of Pirelli’s medium and soft tyres on this, the longest track of the season. We take a team-by-team look at day one in Belgium