(Motorsport) For a driver of Charles Leclerc’s calibre, it's astounding that he has never finished a race in his home country. This time around, things are looking bright for both the 24 year old and Scuderia Ferrari as they led the pace in both sessions alongside Carlos Sainz. Both the drivers were more than 0.3 seconds faster than Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were 0.7 seconds slower. However, as we have seen quite often this season, the pace must translate into results and a first-second finish for both the drivers will be crucial to keep their title hopes alive. 

Speaking after the final practice, Leclerc said “For now we are competitive, so I'm happy. The car looks strong. Also at the race pace we look good. The initial feeling is good so hopefully we can do the step we want for tomorrow and have a great weekend after that. But I really think we need to do another step for tomorrow because everyone has quite a bit of a margin on Friday so it is a bit of an unknown." Meanwhile, reigning champion Max Verstappen said “We have been trying a few things around here to see how the car was behaving. I was a little bit happier in P1 than P2. Of course if you have a little bit of a better balance you can attack a bit more and then the lap time comes out a bit better. But clearly compared to Ferrari we have to find a little bit more and now it is all about trying to fine-tune my balance as well." 

As for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton had a difficult Final Practice session after finishing 12th while his teammate George Russell was 6th. The seven time World Champion said “There are, like, 100 bumps on just one straight. I don't know whether the others are experiencing the same as us. But it's the bumpiest roller-coaster ride. It's the bumpiest the track's ever been. It's probably the bumpiest track I've ever driven. That makes it difficult but in general our car bounces a lot. It's different bouncing to what we've experienced in the past because it's in the low speed [corners] also, but it's not aero. The bumps are making it worse. Putting a lap together is, wow, whole new ground. I don't remember experiencing that before. The grip doesn't feel terrible but it's just eyeballs coming out of the sockets. As anticipated, I didn't think we would be as quick as the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Our battle is to try and stay ahead of the McLarens." 

George Russell said “The car is constantly smashing against the floor. We have experienced a lot of that this year but this is a very different philosophy and reasoning for bouncing. There are sections where both tyres are off the ground – in Turn Five, the front right in the air, and it's so stiff the front left is popping up as well. You're almost doing a wheelie. We're doing everything we can to make it easier for us. It was a relatively good day but we are not where we want to be. We want to be the best of the rest. That is a fair result this weekend behind Ferrari and Red Bull but we want to make sure we don't have cheeky little Lando popping it in there too." 

Daniel Ricciardo continued to struggle in his McLaren as he endured a heavy crash, clipping his left rear tyre and smashing into the barrier while his teammate Lando Norris finished fifth. The Australian said “I think we just pushed a few things with set-up a little too far. Tried my best to save it. We missed all the sessions but we'll be ready to go tomorrow. Morning was good, we can use that and Lando had a pretty good P2 so we can bounce back." Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel avoided an almost identical crash moments before. The German driver said “There was a mistake in the first place. I shouldn't be sideways at that point but I guess I was also a bit lucky. It was a good save but definitely my heart rate was going up."

Also read: Formula 1: Daniel Ricciardo struggling to meet McLaren’s expectations