Third in the morning, second in the afternoon. Behind only the Red Bulls, in particular that of Max Verstappen. Everything perfect, except that it’s only Friday. The approach with the Istanbul Park of Charles Leclerc it couldn’t have been better. The Ferrari driver finished the opening day of the Turkish weekend with the second fastest time, showing a rather quick adaptation to an unknown track and in poor condition. In fact, all the riders complained a lot about the adherence, or rather the non-adherence, of the Bosphorus track, which forced the protagonists of the Circus to a rather circumspect and full of corrections driving.
This particular asphalt situation probably contributed to level the differences between the cars. The fact is that surprisingly, the SF1000 driven by the Monegasque appeared quite on the ball. In fact, Leclerc was not fast – at least in relative terms – only on the flying lap, but also in the race pace. The number of kilometers traveled is also important. The driver from the Principality was the one who finished PL2 with the highest number of laps completed, as many as 44. “At the beginning I was not convinced of the track grip – Leclerc confessed at the end of the day – but after a few laps I enjoyed it. We need to understand why, but it’s not nice to have this situation. Today we have covered many kilometers with the aim of maximizing our performance for the rest of the weekend“ he added.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had such low grip on slick tires before: it really feels like you’re on ice.or – Leclerc then remarked in conclusion, taking up the analysis already made by Max Verstappen – the weather forecast doesn’t look good for tomorrow and I really don’t know how things could go in the rain, so tomorrow will be a very complex day. However if we do everything perfectly we could be quite competitive and there might be some good opportunities for us”.
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