Charles Leclerc has called for Ferrari to ensure its double DNF in Azerbaijan isn’t repeated this season after taking a massive hit to his title campaign.
Leclerc’s power unit blew in a plume of smoke on the front straight on lap 20, forcing his retirement. Teammate Carlos Sainz had stopped with an engine hydraulics leak just 11 laps early, cementing a shocking day at the office for the Italian team.
The double retirement facilitated an easy Red Bull Racing one-two finish with Max Verstappen in the lead, consolidating a 21-point title lead ahead of teammate Sergio Perez. Red Bull Racing also widened its lead over Ferrari in the constructors standings to 80 points.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc claimed his fourth pole position in a row by dominating qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ferrari held a provisional front-row lockout, but with Carlos Sainz leading a slightly scrappy Leclerc, the drivers battling with grip on a cooling track fast approaching sunset.
Sainz was first out among the front-runners for the second runs, but it was the Spaniard’s turn to struggle, and after some snaps of oversteer in the first few corners, his pole challenge was as good as over at the end of the first split.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc took top spot in second practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Sergio Perez. The Monegasque trailed the Mexican in the first hour but snatched top spot in the late afternoon with a 0.248s margin.
Leclerc’s Ferrari was running with a much skinnier wing compared to FP1, and it showed in the sector times. Whereas earlier on Friday he was dominated in the first sector, by the end of the day he was quickest of all in that split — and without sacrificing performance in the slow and twisty middle sector, where his advantage was at its largest. In fact he was quicker than Perez’s Red Bull through all three splits by the end of the afternoon as well as at the speed trap.
But the day wasn’t flawless for Leclerc, who in the final five minutes complained this his engine was losing power, though the team radioed back that it was nothing to be worried about.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc swept Friday practice by leading a Ferrari one-two in second practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The home favorite set a time of 1m12.656s to edge teammate Carlos Sainz by just 0.44s. His best effort was also less than a second slower than last year’s FP2-topping time, suggesting this year’s new-generation car isn’t as maladapted as feared.
The two Ferrari drivers were in a class of their own on single-lap pace, with Sergio Perez 0.379s off the pace as the next quickest driver. The Mexican bested Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen by just 0.68s.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc narrowly beat Sergio Perez to the top spot in opening practice for the Monaco Grand Prix. The Monegasque’s best lap of 1m14.531s was just 0.039s quicker than the Mexican, with both setting their times on the medium compound in the final 10 minutes of the session.
Carlos Sainz completed a tightly knit top three, just 0.07s behind his Ferrari teammate, but the Spaniard left time on the table. He was set for the fastest lap, complete with purple sectors at the first two splits, when he encountered traffic exiting Swimming Pool and had to abandon the effort, leaving him fractionally adrift.
Both Ferrari drivers complained of bouncing early in the session, but some setup changes halfway through seemed to improve matters, with Leclerc’s floor coming off the car for a time for further configuration work.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc swept the first two practice sessions at the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of George Russell on another potentially promising practice day for Mercedes.
Leclerc’s soft-tire run came in at 1m19.670s, which was just 0.117s quicker than Russell’s best effort and 0.2s quicker than Lewis Hamilton. It’s the second consecutive round Mercedes has looked competitive during Friday practice, after Russell topped FP2 in Miami two weeks ago, albeit before the car mysteriously fell away from Saturday onwards.
More promising this weekend at least is that the W13 was fastest in the speed trap, the team having struggled with straight-line performance for much of the year to date. Russell also said the car felt improved compared to Miami, another sign of potential light at the end of the tunnel.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc led Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz to the top of the time sheet in first practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Title leader Leclerc’s best time of 1m19.828s was 0.079s quicker than his teammate’s fastest attempt despite the Monegasque complaining of light traffic on his flying lap on softs.
Both Ferrari cars are running in heavily upgraded configuration for the first time this season, with the floor being the principal area of focus as the team seeks to close its estimated 0.2s gap to Red Bull Racing.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc will lead Ferrari’s first front-row lockout in more than two years, beating teammate Carlos Sainz to pole position for the Miami Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen had taken provisional pole with his first lap of Q3 but the Dutchman left the door open with a mistake at Turn 5, his car snapping from underneath him and sending him wide across Turn 6.
The Ferrari drivers didn’t need the invitation. Sainz had just set a purple first sector and Leclerc took the second split to put the pair about level at the final split.
Continue reading on RACERFerrari’s Charles Leclerc beat Mercedes man George Russell to top spot in the first timed session at the brand-new Miami International Autodrome for the Miami Grand Prix.
The championship leader emerged at the head of the pack after a flurry of late laps on the soft compound as the track began to cool slightly, having been heated to a scorching 127 degrees F at the start of the hour.
Dropping more than 10 degrees at the end of the session, Leclerc logged a time of 1m31.098s to pip Russell by 0.071s in a promising first test of Mercedes’ car upgrades designed to turn around its shocking start to the season.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after a Sergio Perez crash ended qualifying early.
Perez was pursing the dominant Leclerc for pole when he lit up his rear tires at Portier, spinning his car and rear-ending the barrier. His broken car came to rest blocking the track, triggering the red flags that brought qualifying to a premature close.
But Leclerc already had the session well in hand. Not only had he put 0.225s on the field after the first flying laps, but he opened his final attempt with a purple first sector that put him another 0.2s up on everyone else before the red flags flew and called off the session.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc led teammate Carlos Sainz to a dominant Ferrari one-two in a wet first practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
The Scuderia was almost 1.5s quicker than any other team around the tricky wet track, with Max Verstappen next best in third. It’s a potential portent for the rest of the weekend given first practice is the only session not run to parc ferme conditions according to the sprint weekend format, with qualifying coming later today.
Rain had lashed the Imola circuit all night, and cold conditions this afternoon ensured the surface remained wet and treacherously low in grip throughout the hour.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc dominated the Australian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen retired with another apparent power unit problem.
The poleman was cleanly away from the grid and kept Verstappen at bay in the early laps, but it soon became clear the Dutchman was struggling. He reported severe graining on his left-front medium tire and locked up several times in the tricky final sector, dropping a lot of time to the leading Ferrari.
Things only got worse from there. Having made no inroads during the pit stops, Verstappen’s car lost power down the front straight on lap 38, forcing him to park by the side of the road and retire from the race.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc will start the Australian Grand Prix from pole position after beating Max Verstappen to top spot in an unpredictable qualifying session.
Verstappen had seized the momentum in the disrupted final segment, which had been red flagged halfway through for a Fernando Alonso smash, and held provisional pole when the checkered flag fell. But Leclerc was last on the road and purple first and last sectors blew away Verstappen’s best time to take pole by a comfortable 0.286s.
“It felt good,” he said. “This weekend we really worked hard.”
Continue reading on RACERCharles Lecler kept Ferrari on top in second practice for the Australian Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen to the top spot by a quarter of a second.
Ferrari had things all its own way for much of the session, the red cars looking clearly more comfortable around the revised circuit layout as Leclerc lowered the day’s benchmark to 1m18.978s.
The one problem in an otherwise clear hour of running came late, when fuel tanks were filled, with Leclerc enduring significant bouncing near the end of the front straight and in particular the long flat-out run between Turn 6 and Turn 9.
Continue reading on RACERCarlos Sainz topped first practice at the Australian Grand Prix but will be investigated after the session for blocking.
Sainz appeared to impede Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in the final sector, running him wide out of the penultimate corner in a move that the stewards are taking up before FP2 later today.
The Spaniard went on to beat teammate Charles Leclerc by half a second with a lap of 1m19.806s to lock out the top of the time sheet for the Scuderia in a confidence-inspiring track debut for the team’s new diffuser.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc completed a sweep of practice sessions at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, once again leading Max Verstappen.
The Monegasque improved his time at the last moment with blistering pace through the first sector before losing time to the Dutchman over the balance of the lap to edge the Red Bull Racing car by just 0.033s.
But Verstappen will feel comfortable knowing there was more pace in his car but for a mistake on his last flying lap that sent him clattering over the curbs at Turn 22.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc set the fastest time of second practice of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix… shortly before crashing out of the session.
Leclerc set the hour session’s quickest time despite encountering traffic in the final sector, which prevented him from setting even a personal best time at the split. Regardless, his lap of 1m30.074s went unbeaten through the hour, with Max Verstappen slipping into second and 0.140s off the pace.
But after switching to long-run simulation Leclerc made moderate contact with the barrier at the apex of Turn 4 and broke his left steering arm. He was able to crawl back to pit lane, but his session was over.
Continue reading on RACERharles Leclerc beat Max Verstappen to the top spot of the late-afternoon opening practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver took top spot on the second push lap of a new set of soft tires as the session clock expired, pipping Verstappen by 0.116s — though the Dutchman used a set of hard tires for his best lap, distorting the gap.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is run at night, so track conditions during first and third practice in the afternoon are not representative of qualifying and the race. The track surface was also very dusty at the beginning of the session, particularly off line and in the pit lane, and drivers struggled with gusty conditions around the seaside circuit.
Continue reading on RACER