Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc held his hands up to making a mistake in the second free practice session on Friday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez heading into the Mexican Grand Prix.
Leclerc was taking part in what should have been a routine, drama-free tyre test for Pirelli when he suddenly spun off at turn 8 and reversed into the barrier, bringing out a lengthy red flag and ending his session early.
"I lost the rear at the start of the high-fuel [run]," he told the media afterwards. "But that was my mistake. I’m confident it won’t hurt our weekend.
“I don’t think any of it will compromise us. I think we have enough [spare components] now with all the penalties we’ve had in the past, so it should be fine.
“We tried something on my car which I didn’t particularly like, so I wasn’t as much at ease with the car than I was in FP1," he explained. "But I know what to do for tomorrow, so [we are] confident that the performance will be there.”
There had also been a setback for Leclerc right at the start of first practice, too. "Unfortunately we had a puncture straight out of the box in FP1, so we had to pit and did just a few laps on the soft tyres after that.
"Not the best of Fridays as we didn’t complete a great number of laps," he acknowledged. "[But] I am confident that we will have a good day tomorrow, as the feeling in the car is good."
Even with his slightly limited running, Leclerc was second quickest in FP1 behind team mate Carlos Sainz. The tyre test programme meant the times were pretty much irrelevant in FP2, where he was still seventh quickest.
Having led FP1 by 0.046s, Sainz dropped to eighth in the unrepresentative second session, but he said that he was still happy with the day's work.
“FP1 went well, it went to plan," he said. "I think we’re in the right spot with car balance and I think it will be a matter of which package adapts better to the high altitude.
"It’s not an easy circuit. We’re naturally lacking downforce here due to the altitude, but we’re having fun out there.
“We got as much as we could from today," he stated. "We did quite a few car changes for FP2 [but] we don’t know if we went in the right direction or not because of the tyre testing.
"FP3 will be another busy session, like it was in Austin, trying to get the last points of data to decide before quali and before the race which I think is going to be an interesting one.
“There’s always a bit of a guess going into the race when you have a compromised weekend like here or Austin," he added. "There’s going to be a lot of guessing of where to put the car in the right place.
"But we’ve been good every time so far doing that this year, and we’ve got I think a good car for Saturday and Sunday.”
Sainz is looking for his second win of the year after triumphing at Silverstone, while Leclerc is targeting his fourth victory of the season.
Leclerc won two of the first three races of 2022 but was then eclipsed by Max Verstappen who successfully clinched the drivers title in Suzuka while Red Bull put the constructors championship beyond doubt in Austin.
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