Charles Leclerc’s Friday practice session at the British Grand Prix was cut short due to an electrical issue on his Ferrari, but he remained positive about the team’s prospects for the weekend. Leclerc’s performance in recent races has raised expectations at Ferrari, with a major upgrade package introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix and a strong showing in Austria where he challenged Max Verstappen for pole position.
During the opening practice session at Silverstone, Leclerc secured the fifth-fastest time, while his teammate Carlos Sainz finished seventh. Ferrari was widely expected to be the closest challenger to Red Bull at the British Grand Prix. However, just before the start of FP2, Ferrari announced that Leclerc’s car had developed an electrical problem, forcing him to miss the session.
Despite the setback, Leclerc remained optimistic and expressed confidence that the issue had been identified and resolved. The team worked to rectify the problem by changing the components of the car. While the lack of track time in FP2 was unfortunate, Leclerc believed it would not significantly impact their weekend apart from missing valuable kilometres and laps.
When discussing the upcoming weather conditions, which predict rain for Saturday’s qualifying session, Leclerc acknowledged that the situation would be different but remained positive about the team’s ability to adapt.
Leclerc stated, “An electrical issue, so it shouldn’t have any influence on our weekend apart from obviously the lack of kilometers and laps in FP2. That’s a bit unfortunate because that’s normally where we prepare for the race, and Sunday seems to be dry, so we’ll go a little bit into the unknown there. But tomorrow should be very different with rain around.”
While Leclerc’s FP2 session was cut short, his teammate Carlos Sainz showed promising pace, finishing second with a lap just 0.022 seconds slower than Verstappen’s benchmark time. Sainz, who claimed his first Formula 1 victory at Silverstone last year, demonstrated Ferrari’s potential as they aim to challenge for a strong result in the upcoming race.
Despite the setback, Ferrari remains determined to bounce back and make the necessary adjustments ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session, where unpredictable weather conditions will add an additional challenge for the team.
