Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel are cautiously optimistic about the Ferrari SF1000 after the first free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Hungary. In the rainy second session at the Hungaroring, the German even set the fastest time on Friday.
“It actually went better than expected,” said Leclerc after the second training session. “We don’t have a lot of new parts available this weekend, but our car seems to be doing a little better on this track. It’s good to see.”
Ferrari made a number of updates to the car earlier than initially planned last week after the disappointing performance in the first Grand Prix of the season in Austria. In the second race on the Red Bull Ring, things already went wrong for the Italian race in the first round when Leclerc crashed behind Vettel.
Ferrari has made no further updates to the Hungarian Grand Prix, but Vettel and Leclerc nevertheless posted better results than last week’s first practice sessions in Austria. In the first session they finished sixth and seventh, after which they achieved the first and tenth time in the second training. In that last session many drivers barely drove or no clocked laps because of the rain.
According to Leclerc, the many corners on the Hungaroring have a share in the better performance. “We have a few less straights here. In Austria, for example, we had a very difficult time in the first sector. We are quite fast in the corners, but we really cannot compete with Mercedes yet. We are faster than last week. That is good for us to see. “
‘We especially need trust’
Vettel joins his teammate’s analysis. “The morning session went well,” said the four-time world champion after his fastest time in the second practice. “This circuit seems to us a bit better. Hopefully that will still be the case tomorrow.”
Vettel attaches little value to his first time in the second session. “We just drove a few more laps than our competitors in the rain,” he realized. “That has cost us a bit more on the one hand, but on the other hand it has helped to collect data and expose our weaknesses. That is more important at the moment. We mainly need confidence in the car. “
In the first practice, Vettel and Leclerc were more than a second slower than Lewis Hamilton, who reached the fastest time in his Mercedes. Max Verstappen was in that session, in which he complained about the adjustment of his Red Bull, with an eighth time slower than the Ferrari duo. In the second practice, he drove only one lap, good for the seventh fastest time.
GP Hungary start times
- Third training: Saturday noon
- Qualification: Saturday 3 pm
- Race: Sunday 3.10 p.m.
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