Charles Leclerc wasn’t too concerned despite admitting practice had “not been great” for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Looking to bounce back from the disappointment in Bahrain, the Monegasque was only seventh fastest in the afternoon having been unable to set a proper lap time during his qualifying simulation.
Then, as his rivals completed race runs, Leclerc was stranded in the garage as the team ran cooling checks on his car.
“It has not been great,” he conceded in the paddock afterwards. “We had to stop for further checks on something on the oil so we will check it but no big issues.
“In terms of performance I think we are there,” Charles continued. “In FP2 I didn’t have a clean lap so pointless to look at performance but overall I think I’m pretty happy with the car.
“Still some work to do on the balance here and there but it should be fine for tomorrow.”
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Leclerc though knows a tough battle is on the cards with the top three teams covered by just a quarter of a second in Practice 2.
“We’ll see, I think it’ll be very close,” he said. “Mercedes and also Red Bull are actually quite close so it’ll be an interesting battle.”
As for teammate Sebastian Vettel, he would top the morning before just being pipped by Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes.
However, the four-time world champion does think he is on a good path.
“I think overall I’m happy but also I can feel there’s a lot more in the car so yeah not entirely happy,” he surmised.
“I think also there was more on myself and getting everything together so tomorrow will be key to have a better feeling than today and making sure to string everything together.”
