With Max Verstappen and Red Bull back in dominant form on Friday in practice for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, it was down to Ferrari to pick up the gauntlet as the main challengers on the track.
Carlos Sainz was second quickest behind Verstappen in FP1, and later in the day it was his team mate Charles Leclerc who took over and finished just 0.320s behind the pacesetter.
"We seem to be slightly closer to our competitors than expected, so it was quite a positive day overall," commented Leclerc afterward. “Red Bull seem to be extremely quick this weekend, but I don’t think we are too far off.”
But even so, it still looks as though the prospects of snatching pole position on Saturday - let alone a back-to-back win on Sunday after Sainz' victory in last week's Singapore GP - aren't really on the cards this time.
That's despite a new floor on the SF-23 being introduced this weekend. Leclerc was first to take it for a spin in FP1 and then Sainz also received the upgrade for FP2.
“It did what we expected it to do, which is gave us a little bit of consistency, which was good to see," added Leclerc. "I don’t think there was a lot of performance into it but let’s wait and see.
“Obviously we keep learning about this car. The last two and three races we learned a lot and now it’s about putting all of it together, which we did in Singapore, so we need to do that here too."
"Everything is so close with McLaren and Mercedes that whenever we put our car in the right window we can be in front,” he said. "That’s what the target is for tomorrow.
"But even if we do everything perfect this weekend, I expect Red Bull to be stronger unfortunately," he conceded.
Meanwhile Sainz felt he was lacking rhythm tis weekend because of the focus on upgrades and improvements. "We dedicated the whole Friday to try different mechanical settings in the car, trying different set-ups.
“It’s not a big step, it’s nothing. Really fine-tuning the aerodynamics of the car," he explained. "Just experimenting here, and there and hopefully tomorrow we can put the whole package and make a step forward.
"It was a bit difficult to get into a rhythm that session because we were changing a lot of things in the car on purpose," he continued. “Hopefully tomorrow I just choose the car I want to run this weekend, put everything together that I want to do.
"We have a lot of data to look into and tonight we'll need to decide what settings to run tomorrow, trying to put the car in the right performance window," he said. "We have a couple of interesting days ahead of us.
"This weekend the gaps to our closest rivals seem very close, therefore back to where we were in previous races, with Red Bull very strong again.
"Definitely seems to be competitive, especially over one lap. I think we can be there or thereabouts behind Red Bull and Max, I think it will be a very tight fight with McLaren and Mercedes.
"Very tight quali between us six for that second row," he predicted. "I think if [we] do a good job and nail everything tomorrow we can put ourselves in a good position."
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