Leclerc reckons Ferrari are ‘more in the fight’ on home soil as Sainz gives his take on ‘completely new’ Monza track

Ferrari gave the Tifosi cause for optimism on the opening day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finishing inside the top-five positions in both sessions.

After Leclerc placed second and Sainz fourth in FP1, the Monegasque posted the fifth-fastest time during FP2 and the Spaniard the third-quickest lap – behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

FP2: Hamilton leads Norris and Sainz during close second practice at Monza while Magnussen brings out red flags

Ferrari enter the weekend aiming to move on from a run of more challenging races, and Leclerc reckons the early signs are positive for the team, who have introduced a host of new parts on their home soil.

“It was quite a positive Friday, however there’s still some work to do as always and we cannot rely on a good Friday to have a good weekend overall,” Leclerc commented.

“But it’s a good start, the feeling is quite nice, everything we brought to the car seems to be working as expected, which is always a good thing.

“Now we’ve just got to focus on the balance because it’s been a tricky day balance-wise; performance-wise we were pretty good, but balance-wise there are still some steps we can do in the right direction.”

Pushed on whether the track seems to be suiting Ferrari’s car better, and if porpoising was not such an issue after recent bouncing-related struggles, Leclerc said: “Yeah. We are closer than where we were in Zandvoort.

READ MORE: ‘Lesson learned’ says Antonelli after 52g crash sees him end maiden Mercedes FP1 in the Monza barriers

“However, again, I still feel like McLaren are strong and also Mercedes are very strong. We’ll have a lot of competition tomorrow, but we are more in the fight than in Zandvoort. That’s a good thing for Saturday and then hopefully on Sunday we’ll be strong too.”

Sainz, meanwhile, opened up about the various challenges faced by the drivers on Friday as they attempted to get to grips with a new track surface and new kerbs amid high temperatures.

“It was a very challenging day, I think, for everyone out there,” he said. “The layout is the same, but the track feels completely different to any other year with this peaky new surface.

“It makes the car a bit on the edge in all the medium-speed corners, and the braking is very tricky into Turn 1. Even if the lap times are the same as other years, the kerbs and the tarmac have changed a lot the situation.”

READ MORE: Verstappen concedes ‘still a bit of work to do’ for Red Bull to be ‘really competitive’ at Monza

Asked for his expectations as the weekend develops, he said: “I think today in particular is very difficult to read. I don’t have a clear picture of who is fastest, who is quick in the long-run, short-run. It definitely seems like McLaren and Mercedes seem to be in a good spot.

“Ourselves, we have flashes of being very quick sometimes, and others a bit slower. We were quick on the medium tyres but then on the soft we were nothing special, and then on the mediums in the long-run we seemed to be struggling a bit with the graining.

“I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting to see who manages to take the right conclusion out of today, because there’s a lot of information gathered. As I said, it’s a very new circuit, and [we’ll see] who puts it together for tomorrow and Sunday.”

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