Charles Leclerc is feeling positive about Ferrari’s performance so far at the F1 Singapore GP, despite a “messy” FP2 session that saw him collide with Lando Norris in the pitlane.
Leclerc recorded a strong P2 finish behind Fernando Alonso in the first practice session of the weekend. However, FP2 proved to be more difficult, leaving the Ferrari driver in ninth place.
Speaking after FP2, Leclerc attributed his result to traffic and two red flags following crashes for George Russell and Liam Lawson.
“Good FP1, very difficult FP2,” he said. “It’s been just a very messy FP2 with the traffic and with the red flags and with the pit lane incident.
“Lots of things going on which haven’t been very positive but we’ll reset and come back stronger. I think the pace is in the car so that’s a good thing.”
“These things happen”, Leclerc says of Norris pit lane drama at F1 Singapore GP
As he was pulling out of his garage during FP2, Leclerc suffered a collision with Lando Norris, driving into the side of the McLaren’s wing. Ferrari was issued a €10,000 fine after the session for an unsafe release.
When asked after the session, Leclerc blamed the incident on a camera obstructing his view and miscommunication with his mechanic.
“I’ve analysed and obviously my camera was on my face so I couldn’t see to double check with Ale, my mechanic,” he said.
“But then speaking with him, I think it was a bit of confusion with the two McLarens going out and it looked like they were going out at the same time so he thought that they would go out a bit slow.
“So I didn’t have the message to stop and in these kinds of cases you kind of rely on the team.
“These kinds of things happen. It was also in a tricky moment because, with all the red flags, everybody was such in a rush to get out to do some laps. It’s a combination of things, it’s not something you want but these things happen.”
Hamilton positive after Friday sessions at the F1 Singapore GP
Teammate Lewis Hamilton was in a similarly positive mood about Ferrari’s pace, despite recording a difficult FP2, in which he finished 10th.
“It’s generally been a good day. I’ve enjoyed driving the car,” he said. “It’s [my] first time driving, obviously, a Ferrari at this track and I’ve always wondered from looking on onboards over the years what the differences would be.
“It’s the first time I got to feel that today and it was positive.”
While traffic was also an issue for the seven-time world champion, Hamilton expressed that Ferrari’s positive progress was the main takeaway from the day.
“Obviously McLaren’s very fast and getting a clean lap is not easy but I feel like there’s lots of positives to take from today, lots of learnings and quite happy with the progress that we’ve made from session to session,” he said.
“I felt like we’ve made steps forward today so I feel like overnight we probably won’t change much, but of course trying to refine the setup and see if we can extract a little bit more to get as close as we can to the McLarens.”
