Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets in second practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang but cautioned that Ferrari are not the most competitive team this weekend, pointing to Red Bull and Mercedes as the drivers to beat.
Leclerc finished fourth in FP1 before going fastest in FP2 at the Sepang International Circuit. Team mate Lewis Hamilton also showed strong pace, placing sixth in FP1 and fifth in FP2. Despite the encouraging results, Leclerc was measured in his assessment of where Ferrari truly stands.
“I felt quite good with the car, but I still feel like the Red Bull, for example, is standing out this weekend so far,” Leclerc said. “Isack [Hadjar], I think, did some mistakes in the last part of the lap, and Max didn’t do the lap on the soft tyres, so I don’t think we are the most competitive, and also the Mercedes is a bit difficult to understand.”
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished seventh and eighth respectively in FP2, with both drivers unable to complete clean laps on the soft compound. Leclerc declined to read too much into Mercedes’ subdued showing, noting the Silver Arrows had brought a significant upgrade package to Sepang and warning they would find their footing quickly.
“They don’t often get it wrong, so I wouldn’t underestimate them,” he said. “I’m sure that once they all put everything together, they’ll be very strong. They’ve been the favourite since the beginning, since the first race, and normally when they put something on the car it works very well.”
Beyond the competitive order, Leclerc identified tyre degradation as the central challenge of the weekend, having called it “insane” over team radio during FP1. “The degradation is going to be the main talking point of the weekend, so yeah, that will make the race very interesting and we need to be on top of that,” he said. “A small difference in some corners can make a huge difference in degradation.”
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur echoed those concerns, noting the conditions at Sepang represented a departure from recent weekends. “Over the last five or six weekends [this is] the first one we are more focused on degradation than something else,” Vasseur said. “Conditions are a bit extreme and, for everybody, it’s almost a new track. It means that we have a lot to do and a lot to improve.”
Leclerc acknowledged the track surface was unusually slippery throughout Friday’s running but expects conditions to improve ahead of qualifying, adding that Ferrari still has significant work to complete before Sunday’s race.