Charles Leclerc has apologised to Ferrari for leaving his mechanics with "big, big work" to do after he crashed heavily in the closing stages of Friday's second practice session in Saudi Arabia. Leclerc was finding the limits at the all-new Jeddah Corniche Circuit when he lost control of his car through Turn 22 and went off backwards into the barriers, causing significant damage in the process. Thankfully, the Monegasque escaped unharmed, while Ferrari subsequently confirmed that both his chassis and engine have survived , meaning he won't face any grid penalties.
"I'm sorry for the team"
Leclerc nonetheless apologised for the extra work he has caused ahead of final practice. "Yes, a day that unfortunately didn't end up the way that I wanted," Leclerc reflected. "Overall, we went through everything we wanted to test. I think the potential is here and if we put everything together, we should have a good day. "Obviously, I'm sorry for the team that will have to do a big, big work for the car to be ready. "Hopefully I will do a good enough job to thank them in the best way possible with a good result."
Sainz feeling confident
Leclerc ended the day 10th on the timesheets, three places and a couple of tenths away from teammate Carlos Sainz. Sainz described himself as "relatively confident", though feels his pre-race prediction of a close midfield battle is coming true. "I did a good build-up through the day, you know, getting up to speed very little by little, and the pace has been there all day," he explained. "At the moment, it looks like another very tight battle with AlphaTauri, Alpine, McLaren and ourselves. From fifth backwards it could be a very tight fight, like it was in Qatar." Ferrari are 39.5 points clear of McLaren in the battle for third in the Constructors' Championship, while Leclerc and Sainz hold sixth and seventh respectively in the Drivers' standings, separated by 6.5 points.
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