Charles Leclerc was among those not complaining about the lack of grip during practice at the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday.

The Monegasque finished in the top three in both sessions at Istanbul Park, as the new track surface left drivers scrambling for traction even on the straights at times, particularly in the morning.

But while Lewis Hamilton called the slippiness "s**t with a capital S", Leclerc put aside his initial concerns as he got stuck into his first experience on the circuit.

"Well at first I was really not convinced by the grip of the track and I was like ‘Oh, this is going to be a very bad day’, but after a few laps I actually really, really enjoyed it," the Ferrari driver said.

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"It was actually very, very fun to have such low grip. We need to understand why to be honest because it’s probably not great to have a Friday like this as we don’t learn much, but in terms of driving it was very fun and we’ve been very competitive too.

"I don’t think it will improve much during the weekend so it’s good that we’ve done quite a lot of mileage today to understand the conditions, and hopefully we can maximise the result tomorrow."

Also enthusing Leclerc, is the potential for the already unpredictable weekend ahead to be mixed up even more by the weather.

"I really hope so," Leclerc added. "I think the weather forecast doesn’t look so great for tomorrow so I don’t know how it will be in the rain because already today felt like the rain.

"So tomorrow will be a very tricky day, but if we do everything perfect I think we look quite competitive so I hope it can be a good opportunity for us."

Also making the best of a tricky situation was Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, who put his rally skills to good use around the Istanbul track.

“It was actually quite far away, initially, from the normal driving style that we’re used to in Formula 1, and I had great fun playing around. It was really enjoyable,” the Finn said after Friday practice.

“It’s really crucial in these conditions that you can get enough temperature quickly, and then you can have the upper hand on other drivers.

“For sure we learnt a lot from winter testing and even this season in some cold conditions, but it was pretty extreme today because of the way the tarmac is; how smooth it is.

"The track will evolve a lot throughout the weekend and even during FP3 and qualifying," he added.

“So there’s lots to learn from today, and it’s really tricky now to make the right decisions in terms of strategy for the race. There’s going to be many question marks.”