‘We hit the ground running’ – Ferrari drivers encouraged by first day in Mexico as they look to follow up on Austin 1-2 finish

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc both expressed optimism over Ferrari’s start to the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, with the pair particularly encouraged by their long-run pace.

Sainz finished P2 in Friday’s first session before topping second practice, which was dedicated to Pirelli tyre testing, while Leclerc backed him up in fourth after missing FP1 due to Ferrari-backed Ollie Bearman’s latest outing.

READ MORE: Sainz sets the pace as Russell crash disrupts practice session extended for Pirelli tyre testing in Mexico

It comes a week on from the Scuderia’s imperious display in the United States, where Leclerc and Sainz scored a 1-2 finish, meaning they are now hot on the heels of second-placed Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

Asked if he felt like he was on the pace from the first lap, as per Austin, Sainz replied: “Yeah, I think it’s a good way to put it. We hit the ground running in FP1 with a good car, good set-up, then all FP1 and FP2 we just worked in fine-tuning a couple of things.

“Nothing major, so yeah, I’m quite happy with how everything feels. Especially the long runs feel good. I think when it comes to qualifying we’ll have a lot of challenge from our competitors, and over one lap it will be a tight battle.”

READ MORE: ‘A day to forget’ – Verstappen unclear on cause of engine issues as he rues ‘useless day’ of practice in Mexico

Pushed on that longer run pace, he added: “[It was] very good. I was very comfortable with the car, comfortable with the deg, and that’s positive going into Sunday, although here race pace is less important than Austin because it’s more difficult to overtake.”

Leclerc echoed Sainz’s feelings after taking over from Bearman, who was involved in an incident with Williams racer Alex Albon in first practice and sustained damage to the front-left corner of the Ferrari.

Asked if that caused any issues heading into the second session, Leclerc said: “No, no, it was quite an easy fix. There wasn’t any big, big damage, so that was good. We had a quick problem before FP2, but it wasn’t exactly related to that.”

As for his time in the cockpit, the Monegasque commented: “It felt good. It was a bit of a messy FP2 for everybody with the red flag of George [Russell] at the beginning.

READ MORE: ‘One thing after another’ – Russell left frustrated by second big crash in a week as he spins off in Mexico City

“It was quite a good FP1 to miss on paper because we would have half an hour more in FP2, but at the end it was just not great, because in the FP2 we couldn’t do the maximum laps that we wanted to do.

“But anyway, the feeling is good with the car. For me, even though we did two, three laps, we were still straight away in the pace. The long run seems to be good, so that’s really positive.”