Leclerc targeting ‘better than P3’ in Hungary Qualifying as Hamilton rues ‘big struggle’ in Friday practice

There were mixed emotions in the Ferrari garage following the opening day of action at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc hailing a “pretty positive” start after taking P3 in both practice sessions while Lewis Hamilton admitted that Friday had “not been a good day” on his side.

Off the back of claiming a podium last time out in Belgium, Leclerc looked to have carried that form to the Hungaroring, having been the closest challenger to the pace-setting McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri across free practice.

Reflecting on his day after jumping out of the car, Leclerc said of his third place result: “For now it looks like it’s our position, and realistically I think it’s going to be very tough to go and beat the McLarens tomorrow – they seem to be a step forward, but never say never.

“The feeling with the car has been pretty positive so far. We’ve got to do some steps, more in the right direction for tomorrow, but for now the feeling is good.”

Pushed on whether he feels that the Scuderia are ahead of Mercedes and some of their other close competitors, Leclerc looked ahead to Saturday’s Qualifying as he responded: “For now we are, but we can never rule them out.

“It’s always very variable from Friday to Saturday, so I think we’ll have to see tomorrow when we come to the track and see with the new conditions whether the pecking order is the same.

As for Hamilton, the Briton placed in fifth and sixth respectively during each of the day’s practice sessions.

However, when asked if he felt he had made positive progress throughout Friday, Hamilton answered: “Today was not a good day for me, a big, big struggle with the balance of the car and a lot different to the previous years I’ve been here.

“We tried two different things, we tried rectifying some of the balance problems we had in FP1. We changed the car for FP2 and it’s just inconsistent, very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner, so you can’t say it’s just understeer, you can’t just say it’s oversteer.

“It’s just far from being on rails and very out of balance. But I think it’s probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures or something, so we’re going to try to figure that out for tomorrow.”

In terms of whether he can hope for a second row in Saturday’s Qualifying, Hamilton downplayed his chances.

“I mean, Charles has been quick today – he’s been generally happy with the car. For me I’m quite far off, so I highly doubt it,” the seven-time World Champion conceded.