Sainz admits Ferrari 'went a bit backwards' on Friday

©Ferrari

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Carlos Sainz conceded that Friday had been a "strange" day for Ferrari, acknowledging that the heat at the Hungaroring had resulted in the team going "a bit backwards".

Sainz was fourth fastest in the morning and his team mate Charles Leclerc seventh, but neither driver was in the top ten at the end of the afternoon after temperatures soared.

"It was a bit of a strange one," he told the media after the end of the day's track activity in Budapest. "In FP1 we were quite happy with how everything went.

"Then FP2 was a bit of a weird one," he admitted. "The car didn’t feel any worse, or it didn’t feel particularly bad, it’s just that the others managed to be improved.

Read also: Bottas and Hamilton on top in Hungary second practice

"With an even hotter track temperature we went a bit backwards," he said. "There's something there to analyse, something there to look into."

But the weather forecast gives Sainz reason for optimism for the rest of the weekend. "Hopefully by tomorrow there looks like a risk of rain and a bit of cloud coverage and all of a sudden everything can mix up again.

"It should help," he said of the possibility of showers on Saturday for practice and qualifying. "It should help everyone.

"The temperatures we were running in today make the Formula 1 cars and tyres very, very on the limit, but hopefully a bit more to us, I wish, at least."

©Ferrari

Like his team mate, Leclerc is also hoping for cooler conditions on Saturday, albeit without the prospect of rain. "I prefer the temperature can drop just a little without having any rain would be perfect for us.

"It was very warm today and all of us had to adapt to the heat in our cars, but the temperature can also affect other things such as tyre management," he explained.

"It looks like the weather could be variable for the rest of the weekend, which could mix things up again."

Even so, Leclerc described Friday as "a good day".

"We went through our planned programme and I was quite happy with how I felt in the car. The conditions changed slightly from FP1 to FP2, but we did a good job in both the qualifying and race simulations.

"What we need to focus on the most is our qualifying performance. It will be quite tricky to overtake, so we have to be a bit stronger here on Saturday than we have been recently at some of the other circuits."

Ferrari are currently in fourth place in the constructors championships just 15 points behind McLaren.

"Our most important goal today is to try to be ahead of all the midfield that we’re fighting at this moment," Leclerc said. "That is a realistic target, and we believe we can do that ... I don’t like dreaming, I prefer being realistic.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.