Charles Leclerc admitted his Friday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was not the best for him, with a puncture costing him time in the first session before a crash ended his session abruptly in the second.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver ended an encouraging second fastest in the first session behind his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. despite losing a set of tyres to the puncture, but his second session crash was more damaging as he spun into the turn seven barriers after the back end of his car got away from him.
Leclerc does not feel the crash will affect the rest of his Mexico City Grand Prix weekend and he remains confident that he can be a contender for pole position on Saturday afternoon.
“Not the best of Fridays, as we didn’t complete a great number of laps,” admitted Leclerc. “Unfortunately, we had a puncture straight out of the box in FP1, so we had to pit and did just a few laps on the Soft tyres after that.
“In FP2, we completed some short runs. When we started with the long runs, I spun which ended my session.
“I don’t expect it to affect the rest of the weekend in any way and I am confident that we will have a good day tomorrow, as the feeling in the car is good.”
“We completed the two sessions without any issues” – Carlos Sainz Jr.
Team-mate Sainz also has high hopes for a strong weekend in Mexico after topping the first session, which was the only one of the two on Friday to be representative due to the Pirelli tyre test in the second session.
The Spaniard says they were able to get a lot of information across the two sessions, and he goes into Saturday looking to secure a second consecutive pole position, having taken top spot in Qualifying last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.
“In general, it was a positive day here in Mexico,” said Sainz. “We completed the two sessions without any issues and managed to change the car quite a lot between the sessions to test different approaches.
“It’s not an easy circuit, we’re naturally lacking downforce here due to the altitude but we’re having fun out there.
“Thanks to all the Mexican fans for their great support! It’s always impressive to drive through the arena zone and hear them cheer! We’ll try to put on a good show for everyone this weekend.”
Carlos Sainz Jr. topped the first session of the weekend in Mexico – Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office