Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc admitted he faced some problems with his Ferrari engine which led to a disrupted Friday practice session at the Silverstone Circuit.
The first free practice session ahead of the British Grand Prix race weekend allowed just limited running due to heavy rain showers that affected most of the circuit. As a result, the second practice session was the ideal opportunity for teams to make up for lost time at Silverstone.
Charles Leclerc admitted he was not quite in his usual lofty heights in the final standings though, as he ended FP2 only in fifth place, almost half a second behind his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz who set the pace.
In his post-practice interview, the Ferrari driver explained: “Tricky day. The first session we didn’t get much data from, just because of the weather and very few laps. And in FP2 we had quite a bit of problems on my side, so hopefully tomorrow we can have a bit of a cleaner day and have things going our way.” – he said.
When asked to detail what those issues were, Charles Leclerc pointed out they were related to the power unit, that a few times already this championship has cost him important chances for race wins.
Charles Leclerc is confident, though, Ferrari can be fix through set-up modifications:
“I don’t know if there was a radio message on the coverage but overall, just some power unit [problems],” he revealed – “Things that were making it very difficult to drive, but it’s fine. I mean, it’s small, it’s set-up more than problems, so we will modify for tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc did not seem to improve even on the medium to soft Pirelli tyres, while Carlos Sainz set better lap times
Asked if those engine problems were responsible for that, Charles Leclerc said: “Yeah, with the soft it was very tricky again for some reason. It didn’t feel as good as on the mediums..Again, we’ve had those small issues that weren’t easy also to manage. But overall, I think the performance is in the car. So this is positive and hopefully again tomorrow we can put everything together and have a good day.” – the Scuderia Ferrari driver concluded.
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