Leclerc is one of six drivers to have received a grid penalty so far this weekend for switching to a new power unit. This means that the Monaco driver, who wants to be a part of the championship fight again, will start from behind like Max Verstappen, the champion of the new power unit, like himself.
Leclerc said that because they know this situation, it would be useless to focus on qualifying performance in training, so they focus on race performance.
“I would say we didn’t pay as much attention to qualifying pace as we normally do because that would be a little useless. We focused more on racing performance to get ahead as fast as possible,” said Leclerc. said.
Leclerc, who had minor problems such as locking the tires and going off the track, said that he was not disturbed in the car and that it was not a bad day for them.
“Overall it was not a bad day. Of course we tested a lot of things. I think everyone is on a different schedule, so it was very difficult to compare the first day back from vacation,” said Leclerc.
“But overall our feeling was pretty good. Our low fuel performance looks weak but heavy fuel performance looks pretty good. Let’s wait and see. We’ll keep working and try to step forward at night and come back stronger tomorrow.” said.
Leclerc recorded the 2nd fastest lap time in both the first and second sessions in Friday’s practice.