Leclerc: Ferrari performing “better than expected” in Hungarian GP

Charles Leclerc says the tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring is playing into the strengths of the SF1000 this weekend.

Ferrari struggled for straight-line speed performance in the opening two rounds at the Red Bull Ring, often languishing at the bottom of the speed traps.

It appears the Hungaroring is better suited to the Ferrari given its twisty nature and the lack of long straights.

"This morning it went better than what we expected to be honest," Leclerc said. "We didn’t arrive here with lots of new pieces. Actually, it’s pretty much the same car but it looks like the car is better on this track, which is a good thing. 

"This afternoon I struggled quite a bit on my side. We were trying different things and I wasn’t very happy with the car - struggling with the confidence in the wet. We’ve seen some positive signs this morning.''

Leclerc ended second practice just over three seconds off team-mate Sebastian Vettel. 

He revealed the pair were trialling extremely different wet setups in preparation for a wet affected qualifying and race.

"Actually today the first run on the extreme I only did two laps, it’s not very representative. On the second one, I went in an extreme direction - myself and Seb.

"On my side it didn’t work out but looking at Seb’s lap time he did a great job out on track so there’s probably something positive to take from that.”

Vettel fared much better in FP2, topping the session ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

The German wasn't getting too carried away about setting the pace but was happy to admit it was a ''better day'' for the Italian team.

"I think this morning was OK,'' Vettel added. "It should be a bit better for us on this track - let’s hope it stays like this tomorrow. We don’t know until we hit qualifying. 

"We obviously used a little bit more laps than others in the wet just to try and see, see after our weaknesses last week and to understand a little bit further. There’s still a lot of homework to do but overall it seemed like a better day.”