Charles Leclerc leads practice at Imola as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen laments ‘bad day’ – Firstpost

Imola: Charles Leclerc shone in the sun while Max Verstappen slipped and grunted as the Ferrari driver dominated Friday practice for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Leclerc made the most of a heavily revised package while championship leader and three-time world champion Verstappen struggled for his usual Red Bull performance at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

“It was a difficult day,” Verstappen said. “We struggled to find grip and balance and I was never comfortable in the car. It was moving a lot. We have a lot to look at and improve.

“It’s about performance and we need to improve for tomorrow if we want to be competitive. It seems the others have all taken a step forward and now it’s up to us to catch up. It was a bad day.

Leclerc set a best lap of one minute and 15.906 seconds to move 0.192 ahead of nearest rival Oscar Piastri of McLaren, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda taking third place in a tight field at the front of the field.

Leclerc was the fastest in both sessions on Friday 🚀

Here’s how the Ferrari ace did it 👇#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/vZNNv8k9J8

– Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2024

It also marked a successful first day for Leclerc’s partnership with new race engineer Bryan Bozzi after the ‘scarlet scuderia’ opted to make mid-season changes to their crew.

“Of course, everything went well today and the upgrades worked well, which is a good step for us, so it was a good day overall,” Leclerc said.

“But tomorrow the forecast calls for a big change in the wind and track conditions with bad weather predicted for Sunday.

” Feet on the ground “

“So we have to keep our feet on the ground and work carefully because qualifying here is extremely important because it is not an easy circuit to overtake.”

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth ahead of teammate George Russell and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, leaving an exasperated Verstappen seventh ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.

Nico Hulkenberg finished ninth for Haas and two-time champion Fernando Alonso 10th for Aston Martin on a day where most drivers struggled with the windy conditions.

“It’s been a good start to the weekend for us,” said an optimistic Hamilton.

“It’s clear the car feels much better and I’m grateful to the factory for the improvements.”

Verstappen slipped and detoured through gravel traps three times, while Hamilton and Sainz were also seen spinning and making unplanned excursions.

The final two drivers are expected to leave their respective teams at the end of the year, with Hamilton joining Ferrari to replace the Spaniard and hoping to impress the Italian public this weekend.

Their teams have also confirmed more personnel moves with another Mercedes official, chief aerodynamicist Gioacchino Vino, set to join Ferrari after a period of ‘gardening leave’, joining performance director Loic Serra and head of driver development Jerome D’Ambrosio whose moves were announced earlier this week. .

In response, Mercedes recruited two Ferrari employees, Simone Resta and Enrico Sampo – Resta as head of strategic development and Sampo as head of performance software.

Technical director James Allison said Mercedes was recruiting “experienced and good” people at a similar rate to their departures.

“So I guess it’s our job to try to make sure that we act in such a way that people would rather be with us than anywhere else,” he added.

Amid the flux of upcoming driver changes and technical director Adrian Newey’s decision to leave Red Bull, it appears a shift in momentum may be on the way – but the champion team has proven it can bounce back on Saturday several times before.