Charles Leclerc shone in the sunshine while Max Verstappen slithered and grumbled as the Ferrari driver dominated Saturday morning’s [AEST] practice for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Leclerc made the most of a heavily-revised package while championship leader and three-time world champion Verstappen struggled for his usual Red Bull performance at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
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“It’s been a difficult day,” said Verstappen.
“We struggled for grip and balance and I was never comfortable in the car. It moved around a lot. We have a lot of things to look at and improve.
“It’s a performance issue and we need to improve for tomorrow if we are to be competitive. It looks like the others have all made a step forward and now it’s up to us to catch up. It’s been a bad day.”
Leclerc clocked a best lap in one minute and 15.906 seconds to ease 0.192 clear of nearest rival Oscar Piastri of McLaren.
“I think honestly it’s been an encouraging day for us,” Piastri said.
“The pace has been good, both in the qualifying runs and the race run, so I’m feeling pretty happy.
“… I think we are definitely in the fight [ahead of qualifying]. We’ll try to find a bit more tomorrow, but where we were today is not unrealistic.”
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, snatched third in a closely-bunched pack at the front of the field, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo back in 11th.
“On this first day, compared to other times when I finished P11 and I felt the lap was a good one, this time, it didn’t really feel right,” Ricciardo said.
“I’m still trying to find lap time around here; I struggled in a few corners and certainly, there are a few things in the setup that we’re trying to improve. We’ll do a few more tweaks tonight, and I feel like another practice tomorrow will be good just to make some setup changes to improve in a few areas that I know we can.
“I’m still positive as I think we’re looking all right, which Yuki showed by having a good day with a great lap in FP2. Also, who knows what everyone else will do but the aim is to be a strong Q3 car.”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth ahead of team-mate George Russell and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, leaving an exasperated Verstappen back in seventh ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen was left fuming at Hamilton after the pair clashed in FP2, with the Red Bull driver accusing his Mercedes rival of blocking him — and it is “not the first time”, Verstappen added.
The incident in question came at the Villeneuve chicane, with Verstappen gesturing his frustration at Hamilton, who in response signalled an apology.
The incident was not noted or investigated by the stewards but Verstappen did not want to just leave it there when asked about it after practice.
“It’s not the first time,” Verstappen said.
“You try to, of course, always stay calm about it, but it happened again.”
Although Verstappen did show some restraint to not go into too much more detail, understanding there are more important things for him to worry about.
“But on the other hand, also I don’t want to really talk about it too much because that’s not our issue today,” he said.
“We were just severely off pace that we need to fix.”
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Nico Hulkenberg was ninth for Haas and two-time champion Fernando Alonso 10th for Aston Martin on a day when most drivers had struggles with the windy conditions.
“It’s been a good start to the weekend for us,” said an upbeat Hamilton.
“It is clear that the car feels much better and I am grateful to the factory for the upgrades.” Verstappen slid off and detoured through gravel traps three times in all while Hamilton and Sainz were also seen spinning and taking unscheduled excursions.
Both latter drivers are set to leave their respective teams at the end of the year with Hamilton moving to Ferrari to replace the Spaniard and hoped to impress the Italian crowd this weekend.
Their teams also confirmed more staff transfers with another senior Mercedes man, chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino set to join Ferrari after a spell of “gardening leave”, joining performace director Loic Serra and driver development boss Jerome D’Ambrosio whose moves were announced earlier this week.
In reply, Mercedes have signed two Ferrari staff Simone Resta and Enrico Sampo — Resta as head of strategic development and Sampo as head of performance software.
Technical director James Allison said Mercedes were recruiting “experienced and good” people at a similar rate to their departures.
“So I guess it is our job to try and make sure we act in such a way that people would rather be with us than anywhere else,” he added.
Amid the flux of upcoming driver moves and technical boss Adrian Newey’s decision to leave Red Bull, it seemed that a shift in momentum may be taking place – but the champion team has proved it can bounce back on Saturdays many times before.