Charles Leclerc believes qualifying will be "tricky" for the Dutch Grand Prix, after the close times in Friday practice put the top five within three tenths of each other. Leclerc's best time of a 1:12.354 which topped FP2 was just 0.072 quicker than Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, with Lando Norris also going fifth fastest for McLaren. While Ferrari were challenging Red Bull - as the team feared heading into this weekend - Leclerc says he still has issues with his car balance and is looking to extract more time. "At the end we are all extremely close. It's going to be a tricky day tomorrow but we are looking at doing another step forward," he told media. "I wasn't much at ease with the car balance today, so hopefully we can work in the right direction and do another step tomorrow."
Leclerc anticipating "very little" overtaking in the race
The Ferrari driver says the team are working more on their cornering speeds as opposed to straight line, as he believes overtaking on Sunday might be difficult. He added: "In general the balance was really tricky, quite a lot of understeer, trying to rotate the car, then at the exit it makes it quite snappy because I didn't rotate the car enough through the corner. So we need to work on that." "I think the corners are the one we are targeting to make right because the straights are not so much [an issue], and overtaking in the race will be very little. So we will be pushing for qualifying." F1 has extended the DRS activation zone to 40 meters after Turn 13 in a bid to aid overtaking, meaning the drivers can open the flap earlier as they drive through the banked section.
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