Charles Leclerc showed immediate speed in the first two free practice sessions in Las Vegas. Now Ferrari will need to anticipate how the track will evolve — especially with rain expected overnight — and arrive fully prepared for tomorrow’s qualifying session. Charles Leclerc has his sights firmly set on pole position.
It was a positive Friday overall. Aside from a small issue on the SF-25 in the final four minutes of FP2 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc said he was particularly satisfied with the work carried out on the Nevada street circuit.
He topped the timesheets in FP1 ahead of Alexander Albon’s Williams and Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull. In the second session, held early in the Italian morning, he finished third behind Lando Norris and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. In short, Charles has already shown a strong level of adaptation to the American circuit, and the SF-25 also seems to perform well in the colder track temperatures.
There is also another detail worth highlighting regarding the result achieved by the Monegasque in FP2. While Norris and Antonelli climbed ahead using a set of Soft tyres, Charles Leclerc secured third place on a lap set with the Medium compound. This further underlines how well Ferrari has approached the Las Vegas weekend so far — but there is no room for complacency.
“Honestly we are not in a bad place, but we need to see how things go tomorrow,” Charles Leclerc said at the end of the day. “I think Mercedes is very strong and, of course, McLaren and Red Bull are also fighting for the top positions. I believe it will be a tight battle with very small gaps.”
For Ferrari, the key will be continuing the weekend in the best possible way, choosing the right setup direction while trying to anticipate tomorrow’s track conditions. According to the weather forecast, it should rain during the night. If that happens, the circuit will be green again for FP3, but it should rubber in ahead of qualifying.
“I just hope I can continue building my weekend in the best possible way and fight for pole tomorrow. But for today I’d say it was a positive Friday. I think the pace was competitive today.”
“Now it will be all about anticipating the conditions we will find tomorrow and making sure we start on the right foot. But I have very clear ideas about what I want to do with the car, about how to improve it. We’ll wait for tomorrow to understand whether they will really be the right choices,” Charles Leclerc concluded at the end of the second free practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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