{"id":76279,"date":"2024-09-14T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racer.com\/?p=366386"},"modified":"2024-09-14T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T10:00:13","slug":"leclerc-upbeat-after-quick-rebound-from-baku-crash-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/leclerc-upbeat-after-quick-rebound-from-baku-crash-in-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc upbeat after quick rebound from Baku crash in practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Charles Leclerc says there\u2019s still more to come from Ferrari after setting the fastest time of Friday practice<\/span> in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Leclerc\u2019s day started in the worst possible fashion, with the Monegasque hurling his Ferrari into the barriers at the rapid turn 15 less than half an hour into FP1. Though damage was localized to his front wing and front-right corner, it ended his session on the spot with only 11 laps under his belt.<\/p>\n

Things appeared to go from bad to worse when Leclerc reported a steering problem early in FP2, but after another spell in his garage for further repairs he was able add 20 laps to his day\u2019s tally and pinch top spot from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez late in the hour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Fresh off victory in Monza two weeks ago, he said he never doubted Ferrari had the speed to be competitive this weekend despite his disrupted day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t great to start the weekend, but I still had a lot of confidence in the car, so there wasn\u2019t much problem,\u201d he said. \u201cI braked a little bit too much on the right — the track was still dirty. I locked up and it was too late to go to the right, so I went into the wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the thing was when we started FP2 there was actually an actual problem on the car. It was nothing to do with the crash. The mechanics had done a really good job, but we just had a problem on one new part that we had just put on the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t go too much into detail, but that was obviously giving me a very strange feeling with the steering wheel. We changed that, went again, then it was fine. Not as many laps as I would have hoped for for this Friday, but competitive anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc pipped Perez by just 0.006s, while Lewis Hamilton slotted into third 0.066s off the pace, painting a tight picture ahead of qualifying on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span> The tight and twisty Baku circuit appeals to Leclerc, although he admits the real competitive picture is hard to gauge. Andrew Ferraro\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has a mighty history in Azerbaijan, having swept to the last three poles, albeit with only one podium to show for his qualifying efforts. Though he admitted it was too early to be certain Ferrari could rise above the fray, Leclerc suggested he and the team had more performance to come overnight that could stretch their advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the tracks I quite like, and we\u2019ve been pretty quick in the past, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019ll be the case for tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very tight, but it\u2019s very difficult to see with the different engine modes of everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have to work on the car. There\u2019s plenty to do to improve. There\u2019s the driving to be improved quite a bit, because I was still taking my references a little bit in FP2; but again, we are fast, so that\u2019s a good sign. Hopefully more to come tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teammate Carlos Sainz was less committal, saying only that Ferrari could be in the mix if it executed cleanly around the treacherous circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re confident we\u2019re on the pace together with the Red Bulls, the McLarens and the Mercs this weekend,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be extremely tight and it\u2019s going to be about tire preparation and putting the lap together but at the right time at the right place on track before the yellow flags and the red flags.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019re on the right side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc says there\u2019s still more to come from Ferrari after setting the fastest time of Friday practice in Azerbaijan. Leclerc\u2019s day started in the worst possible fashion, with the Monegasque hurling his Ferrari into the barriers at the rapid turn 15 less than half an hour into FP1. Though damage was localized to his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}