It wasn’t an easy Friday in Barcelona for Charles Leclerc. After finding himself 11th in the first round, the Ferrari driver got back on top in the afternoon session, but still had to settle for the sixth final time, 333 thousandths off the surprise best performance of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and a few thousandths closer to Carlos Sainz’s sister SF-24, which is second.
The Monegasque explained that he especially suffered from the track conditions in the morning, adding that it was then an incorrect setting choice that took him off the road in the afternoon. However, at the end of FP2 he thinks he has started to take the right path, so he is convinced he can make a step forward for tomorrow’s qualifying.
“It was a very difficult FP1 for everyone, especially due to the conditions: it was very difficult to ride because we suffered from overheating. In the second, however, we took the wrong path with the balance and among other things we also had to do a comparison with the news,” said Leclerc.
“In the end, however, we managed to find the feeling again, we put everything together, even if I think we still have a bit of pace to show off. In general, it was a difficult Friday, but I know where to find the time, so I’m not too worried,” he added.
The discussion, however, seems to be valid above all from a qualifying perspective, because for now he hasn’t been able to gather too many indications regarding the race pace: “We had a problem that shortened my long run, but I have quite clear ideas on what we need to do on the car and I’m convinced that we’ll make a step forward tomorrow. It wasn’t really a problem, it was a set-up change that took longer than expected. These things can happen from time to time.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Despite the second time, which seems to place him among the favorites for the hunt for pole, Sainz also agrees with his teammate on the fact that the start of this Spanish Grand Prix, his last home race as a Ferrari driver, will be been a bit of an uphill battle. However, his doubts are mainly aimed at the race distance, because the time attack instead went rather well.
“It was a challenging Friday, because the track was very slippery, with quite high temperatures and it was very difficult to put the lap together. It seems that on the lap we are quite ok, while on the long run we struggle a little more, as we have done here last year too. Let’s see if we can put together a better package, especially for Sunday.”
The son of art also spoke about the package of updates introduced on the SF-24, without going into too much detail however: “We took a look at it and everything seems to work quite well. With these values so close, a small package that works good can always make a difference, so we are happy.”
#Leclerc #difficult #Friday #time