Leclerc finished both training sessions in Baku in the top four, despite not having it at his own pace after bumping into the barriers at Turn 15 in the middle of FP2.
Even if he was only a few tenths away from Red Bull in the afternoon session, Leclerc doubts that he will be able to continue his challenge into qualifying on Saturday.
“McLaren is very, very fast, but for some reason they didn’t show it today,” said Leclerc. “Maybe it was less clean compared to us, but I have the feeling that they are a bit ahead of us here, so we’ll have to wait tomorrow.
“Definitely Red Bull and Mercedes – I don’t know exactly what happened to them, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be ahead and it’s basically going to be a fight with McLaren who are our main rivals so we have to” make sure we do everything perfectly because they are making very few mistakes this year.
“So we’ll try to maximize our potential and hopefully be ahead of them in qualifying tomorrow.”
Leclerc explained his accident in FP2 and added: “I actually felt very comfortable in the car today, especially when braking. Maybe a little too comfortable and pushed a little too much into Turn 15. But in the end it’s free practice. I tried the limits a bit and I got a good lap. And let’s see tomorrow. “
On the subject of matching items
Carlos Sainz did slightly better than Leclerc in the afternoon session, a tenth behind Sergio Perez’s benchmark time.
While pleased with Ferrari’s performance for over a lap, Sainz admits that there is still some work to be done in the races.
“It’s very grainy,” explained Sainz. “Red Bull made a particularly strong long run which showed us that they will probably come tomorrow while we were decent on the short distance, but in the long run we still have to analyze how we can do this Rear tires in the window work a little better. “
