Leclerc aiming to maximise Ferrari F1 pace after impressive Friday in Turkey

Charles Leclerc hopes Ferrari F1 can build on a positive showing in Friday practice for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Leclerc ended the day in second place, 0.4s shy of Max Verstappen’s fastest time in FP2.

Both Ferraris were consistently inside the top ten throughout practice at Istanbul Park with it appearing to adapt to the low-grip conditions better than its midfield competitors.

Looking ahead to this rest of the weekend, Leclerc doesn’t expect the track to improve much in terms of grip.

“Well at first I was really not convinced by the grip of the track and I was like ‘Oh, this is going to be a very bad day’, but after a few laps I actually really, really enjoyed it,” Leclerc said. “It was actually very, very fun to have such low grip. We need to understand why though to be honest because it’s probably not great to have a Friday like this - we don’t learn much - but in terms of driving it was very fun and we’ve been very competitive too.

“I don’t think it will improve much during the weekend so it’s good that we’ve done quite a lot of mileage today to understand the conditions, and hopefully we can maximise the result tomorrow.”

With there being a risk of rain, Leclerc is hopeful Ferrari can maximise its opportunities this weekend.

“I really hope so,” Leclerc added. “I think the weather forecast doesn’t look so great for tomorrow so I don’t know how it will be in the rain because already today felt like the rain.

“So tomorrow will be a very tricky day, but if we do everything perfect I think we look quite competitive so I hope it can be a good opportunity for us.”