Charles Leclerc was left ruing a relatively minor mistake midway through second practice, one that spat him off the track at Malmedy and in the wall, triggering the first of the afternoon’s two red flag stoppages.
The incident curtailed his session and meant he was classified in 18th place having completed just 13 laps while the track was still damp in places from an earlier downpour.
“It’s been a very tricky day overall, I think for everyone, because of the conditions,” the Monegasque driver said afterwards.
“Obviously I would have preferred to not end the day in the wall today, but it’s part of free practice and I’ll try not to re-do this mistake – these mistakes – later on.”
- Read also: Verstappen narrowly tops FP2 but ends session with crash
Leclerc suggested that there had been a confusing change in the car’s balance between the first and second hour-long practice sessions.
“[FP1] felt quite good. But [FP2] didn’t feel great, so we need to understand,” he acknowledged. “We didn’t change much on the car so there’s definitely plenty to understand and hopefully we’ll do a good enough job.
“But I’m confident that we will be able to do a good enough job to understand what went wrong in FP2 to be better tomorrow,” he continued. “Tomorrow and Sunday will be the days that count.
“I was reasonably happy with the car balance but the performance is not where we expected it to be.”
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said that he didn’t expect the damage to Leclerc’s car from the accident to be a major problem.
“It was a small mistake,” he said. “I haven’t seen it yet, but yes. It looks like a small mistake.
“Obviously, a [bit of] damages on the car but luckily it’s only Friday and we’ve got the entire night to repair,” he added.
With Leclerc sidelines, the pace of his team mate Carlos Sainz who was fifth fastest in the morning ans 12th quickest in FP2 may be a better indicator of Ferrati’s form going into this weekend’s race.
“Today I enjoyed myself. In terms of performance, however, we didn’t have the best of Fridays,” he conceded. “We couldn’t complete a proper long run in FP2 and the short runs were also tricky with the balance of the car.
“We have a bit of homework to do overnight, but I’m confident we can improve and be in a better place tomorrow.
“The weather looks uncertain for Saturday and Sunday. The rain can appear anytime, as we saw today with Formula 3 qualifying, so we’ll be prepared for any conditions.”
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