Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s pace on Thursday in Monaco was too good to believe after he led a one-two for the team in the second practice session.
His best effort of 1’11.684 was almost four-tenths of a second faster than the quickest non-Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.The result was particularly unexpected for Leclerc after a gearbox failure halted his running early in the first practice session.
“I was quite surprised that it ended that way because Monaco, here especially, it’s very important to do as many laps as you can,” said Leclerc. “Unfortunately with the issue I had in FP1 I had only done four laps.”
He was quickly up to speed in second practice but believes the team’s rivals have more lap time in hand.
“I felt quite at at ease with the car in FP2. I managed to put that lap, there’s still a bit of margin.
“But on the other hand I’m sure that Mercedes and Red Bull have more margin than we have. So we shouldn’t get carried away too much. We’ll have one day tomorrow to work hard and then let’s see where we end up.”
Leclerc said he doesn’t feel confident he will still be at the top of the times come the end of qualifying on Saturday
“I want to wait for Saturday for now. It’s looking good but for now it’s looking a bit too good to believe it.
“So let’s wait and see. On Saturday we’ll know exactly where we are in qualifying and then we’ll go from there for the race.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
20th May 2021, 19:28
Yeah, I would think that the Ferrari team knows they were running probably a tad lighter to be the fastest cars on track. Certainly feels like a more sensible take than Mercedes / Hamilton claiming they are “worried” about Ferrari’s pace.
I do think there’s a chance of beating one or even 2 of the top 4 cars if either of the Ferraris gets in a really good run in Q3 though.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st May 2021, 1:53
That would be impressive, would mean a podium on merit.
sumedh
21st May 2021, 6:52
But a 4 tenths advantage! Not all of it can be due to a lighter fuel load.
I don’t want to build my hopes up but I am finding it difficult to do that :). I think we genuinely have a 4-way fight for the win this weekend (Lewis, Max, Charles, Carlos).
BasCB (@bascb)
21st May 2021, 8:01
I think they also did a very good job of keeping the cars running with relatively little traffic Sumedh. If they are able to repeat that in Qualifying, they really could do a great job.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd May 2021, 1:47
the merc even sounded different they were running their engine on 3 cylinders (joking)
erikje
20th May 2021, 23:07
Wel charles can be assured there is always a ferrari strategy that nullifies his work
Balue (@balue)
21st May 2021, 4:24
Yes lol
Ole Brummer (@andrewwj)
21st May 2021, 11:07
Would be great if they somehow did not ;-)