Impressive long run from Mercedes
“On the flying lap I think they still have something to pull out, but in the long run they were impressive, further ahead than I imagined.” Charles Leclerc was very honest in analyzing a Friday in which in FP2 Mercedes began to take off the mask, showing what is the true potential of the pre-race favorite.
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The fastest, however, was Oscar Piastri who preceded Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. The British driver commented on a two-faced Friday as follows: “The first Friday of the season was not the smoothest. FP1 was a difficult session in which we struggled to optimize battery recovery and usage. This required much of our attention and so we were unable to dedicate ourselves to setup work until much later. When we did, the car had heavy understeer and we didn’t have time to complete a long run.”
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“Fortunately we took a step forward in FP2 and had a much better session – Russell added – the car felt more balanced and we completed a good number of laps both in terms of qualifying simulation and race pace. This puts us in a good position for the rest of the weekend. The leaders of the standings look very competitive and we will have to take another step forward overnight if we want to fight for pole position.”
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