Both Ferrari drivers are refusing to get carried away by their dominance during Friday practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc each led a session apiece at Spa-Francorchamps as their straight-line speed advantage proved enormous, particularly in the first sector where they were a second faster.
However, Mercedes’ superior long-run performance proved a key warning for Ferrari and Vettel admits there is no room for complacency.
“It’s Friday, I think we have seen this on a couple of Friday’s already,” he said via Crash.net. “The most important thing is that we pick the right Ferrari shoes for Sunday.”
While the eight-tenths margin between Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon, suggests only some kind of self-induced issue could stop the Italian team in qualifying, again the four-time champion wasn’t convinced.
“Of course they can,” he said on whether Mercedes can take pole.
“As I said, it’s not the first time that Ferrari looked good for us. Probably on Saturday morning will look good for us and then we will see what happens on Saturday afternoon. I’m not taking anything for granted.”
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Leclerc would largely echo his teammate’s caution, though did admit the pace was a welcome sight.
“After the holidays a day like this is good,” he stated,
“Qualifying pace was very strong, race-pace a little bit less so we have to improve that for Sunday, but we look OK.
“In the second sector they [Mercedes] are very, very strong and tomorrow they will turn up the engine and they won’t be that bad in the first and final sectors.”