A day of mixed fortunes

Friday’s free practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix was productive but also one of mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari HP, slightly compromised by Charles Leclerc crashing in the second session, preventing him from setting a meaningful lap time. Carlos Sainz on the other hand had a solid day, quickest in the first session and third in the later one. Of course, there is still a lot of fine tuning to do during the final hour of practice, which starts tomorrow at 12.30 CEST before qualifying at 16.00 CEST.

FP1. The track was very dirty as Charles and Carlos first ventured out on Hard tyres, with the Spaniard also running aero rakes for measurement purposes. In the middle part of the session both SF-24s were fitted with Soft tyres on which both drivers set their best times: Carlos 1’18”713, Charles 1’19”011. Towards the end, both SF-24s took on a heavier fuel load to run in race trim Sainz on Softs and Leclerc on Hards. The Spaniard did 27 laps, Charles 29, for a total of 56.

FP2. The session began at 17.00 with both Ferraris running Medium tyres, with which Leclerc did a 1’19”286, which would end up as his best time. He crashed into the barriers at turn 4 and had to leave the car at the side of the track, which brought out the red flag. He had completed eight laps. At the restart, Sainz went out on Soft tyres, setting a time of 1’18”185 after which he focused on long runs for the rest of the session, in which he completed 23 laps.

Carlos Sainz #55

Overall, we had a positive day, which is always important here because this is a very tricky track to set up the car. Additionally, due to the high temperatures, it was important to see how all three compounds reacted to the extreme heat on track. We gathered some useful information, and it looks like we are in better shape this weekend. However, it’s only Friday, so let’s see tomorrow.

Charles Leclerc #16

The car feels pretty good so far and we had a more consistent day compared to the past few weekends.

I ran a bit wide in turn 4 and lost the car on the kerb, which thankfully did not cause too much damage, but enough for my session to be over. We will focus on recovering the mileage we missed out on in FP3 tomorrow.