Under normal conditions, Ferrari appears to be the team to beat at the Hungaroring this weekend. At least the Scuderia was a bit ahead of everyone else in training in Hungary on Friday. Charles Leclerc set the best time of the day with 1:18.445 minutes and was two tenths of a second faster than Lando Norris in the McLaren. Teammate Carlos Sainz was third.
“It was a very productive day,” says the Monegasque, who completed more than 50 laps during the day. “We changed a lot of things on my car. It was a bit difficult in the first practice, but we chose the right path in the second practice, so I’m confident that we did the right job for Sunday.”
In the meantime, however, Ferrari fans once again had to worry about the technology. “Feels like something is wrong in fourth gear. The torque seems low to me,” Leclerc radioed in the second practice session. When asked about it afterwards, he can’t really remember.
“It wasn’t a big problem,” he says after a short period of reflection and politely dismisses it. “I just saw that there were some comments that we had a technical problem, but there was nothing.”
Sainz also satisfied
Teammate Carlos Sainz was also quite happy with his day. “The car felt really good from the start of Q1,” he says. “I was very happy with the balance, although of course you always have the feeling that there is still something to improve.”
In the second practice session, Ferrari then tried a few things “that made us lose confidence and performance a bit,” said Sainz, who remains calm: “We know exactly why and believe that we’ll go back tomorrow and Sunday and be more competitive be able.”
“We were definitely able to dispel a few doubts about the direction we are going in this weekend,” said Sainz, who spoke of an “interesting Friday”.
rain on saturday?
And he’s convinced: Third place isn’t really meaningful because he didn’t quite get the first timed lap together. “It was supposed to be a bit faster and I had quite a bit of traffic. So I’m confident that we can be faster on Saturday and Sunday,” said the Spaniard.
But then there is a risk of a complete change in conditions, so that Ferrari could lose its lead again. At least it doesn’t have to mean much anymore. “It looks like it’s going to rain tomorrow,” says Leclerc.
“We have to have that under control and then of course get the tires in the right window, which is always difficult in the rain,” said the Monegasque. “That will be our top priority tomorrow. And if we get them in the right window, hopefully we can have the same advantage.”