A special weekend that of Mexican GP, chosen as the venue for testing the new Pirelli tyres. George Russell's crash during the FP2 lasting 90 minutes, penalised the Monegasque Ferrari driver who had not covered a single centimetre of track to hand over his single-seater to the rookie Bearman during the FP1. If we add to this event the small accident suffered by the young British driver from the Ferrari Driver Academy due to Alex Albon, the weekend for Charles Leclerc It didn't start off in the best way.
Charles Leclerc and the first day on track in the Mexican GP
Charles Leclerc he was therefore unable to immediately go into his FP2, finding himself waiting for the repair and check of the front arm of his SF-24. Having to then, by regulation, first complete all the minutes required for the Pirelli test and only then, if there is time left, test the tyres for the weekend sessions.
Events that did not exactly benefit the 2-year-old Ferrari driver who saw his teammate grab the best time of the day. Carlos Sainz, in fact, reached the checkered flag of FP1 with 17.699:XNUMX, followed by Oscar Piastri and an unexpected Yuki Tsunoda.
Despite this, Charles Leclerc still finished fourth, finding himself very comfortable with the race pace.
The words of the Ferrari driver
“It was a complicated day for me. I should have skipped FP1, as we were thinking of recovering in FP2 for the extra 30 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that opportunity because of the red flag caused by George at the start of the second free practice. These things can happen. We are focused on optimising the package in qualifying, which is important on this circuit. Our pace in the long run simulation was good from the start and I was able to feel comfortable in the car. Let’s see tomorrow.”
