Containing Mercedes might be the only way two prevent a two-horse race in Sunday's British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc believes.
The Monegasque will line-up third on the grid at Silverstone but starts on the soft compound tyre compared to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on the medium.
And based on the evidence of practice, Leclerc sees capitalising on that possible advantage as the only way to challenge for the win.
"If we look at the Friday race simulations I think it's going to be very difficult to fight, [Hamilton's] race run was very strong," he said via Crash.net.
"Red Bull seems to be very quick also in the race run so it's going to be tricky. If we manage to gain some positions at the start, it's a track where it's quite hard to overtake so then we have some chances to keep them.
"But if not I guess it's going to be very difficult to fight with them."
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The single lap pace of the Ferrari was more than a match for Mercedes though, with Leclerc ahead of Bottas' pole time before losing a crucial tenth in the twistier final sector.
"I'm very, very happy with my lap. I think in the last corner, I maybe could have done a little bit better but not much," he reflected.
"Overall I think we are very happy with the performance, very close to Mercedes. We did not expect it, we thought we would be struggling more this weekend.
"We have been struggling since FP1 with the front end of the car, still in qualifying but a little bit less. So yeah, it’s a good qualifying session for us. Of course, we hope for a higher position, but third I think was quite good today."
Even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff expressed his surprise at just how close Leclerc was able to get.
"It came as a little bit as a surprise but finally in Q3 they went backwards and we went forwards," he told Sky Sports
"The grip ramped up, the whole car heated up, and that makes the whole thing come towards us."
