Sainz and Leclerc focus on improving tyre management

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It looked like a very strong day for Ferrari at Circuit Paul Ricard on Friday, with the team topping both of today's free practice sessions ahead of the French Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc was quickest in FP1 with a time of 1:33.930s putting him ahead of Max Verstappen by just under a tenth.

But in the afternoon, the Scuderia went up a gear with Carlos Sainz emerging on top with a time of 1:32.527s on the soft compound, a tenth quicker than Leclerc and over half a second clear of Verstappen.

Read also: Sainz and Leclerc shine in FP2 under the French sun

And yet as promising as this domination might look, the Ferrari drivers are keenly aware that the Red Bull once again seems to have a slight edge when it comes to race pace performance thanks to preserving its tyres better.

Toward the end of FP2, Leclerc was visibly struggling with tyre degradation after just 11 laps on the mediums, while Verstappen was able to pick up and sustain the pace.

"The sessions went quite well today," insisted the Monegasque. "Our qualifying pace was pretty good, so our focus now will be on our race pace.

"Tyre management will be key as the temperatures are so high this weekend," he explained. "I am confident that we will be all set by the time Sunday comes as we know where we need to improve."

Leclerc insisted that there is enough pace in the Ferrari to ensure they will be 'fighting for the win' on Sunday, and Sainz had a similar focus looking ahead to the rest of the weekend at Le Castellet.

"It has been a positive day," he said. "The updates seem to work well and the car felt good, especially on the flying laps.

"The long runs were a bit more challenging due to the graining," he admitted.

"For sure, today’s high temperatures were an important factor to consider, but we need to look carefully into how we can protect the tyres as much as possible."

Even though he was quickest on Friday, Sainz has no chance of taking pole position in Saturday;'s qualifying session as he has already incurred a ten place grid penalty for replacing his Electronic Control Unit after his car fire in Austria.

"Given I’ll take a penalty on Sunday, we now need to focus on preparing the car for the race," he acknowledged. "There is room for improvement, so we’ll keep digging!"

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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.