Although Ferrari looked only the third quickest team behind the field-leading McLaren and Mercedes, Charles Leclerc sounded a positive note after the practice day at Suzuka, suggesting that the Scuderia managed to find about a lot about its 2025 F1 car.
Following a “normal” opening practice, the afternoon hour was frenetic, with the red flag putting in no fewer than four appearances, with several drivers not managing to get even one clean lap.
In this the fastest of the two sessions, Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest and Charles Leclerc was seventh. The Briton and the Monegasque Charles had just started their run on Hard tyres when Jack Doohan in the Alpine triggered the first red flag crashing heavily at Turn 1
After a twenty minute break to repair the barriers, Leclerc managed one flying lap, unlike his teammate, before another red flag, this time caused by Fernando Alonso, who ended up in the gravel at Degner Curve. When the pit lane light returned to green, Hamilton and Leclerc went back out on Soft tyres setting times of 1’28”544 and 1’28”617, fourth and seventh respectively.
Immediately after, came another red flag, this time because the grass caught fire at the exit to turn 9. With just seven minutes remaining, the action resumed with the team splitting the tyre strategy, Leclerc on used Softs and Hamilton on Hards with a heavier fuel load. The Ferrari pair completed 14 laps each, for a team total of 28.
Reflecting on his third practice day with Ferrari, Hamilton sounded a positive note, albeit he hopes that the Scuderia will manage to fine-tune the setup for the rest of the weekend.
“Overall it was a positive day. This is an incredible track and the first sector feels great – you can really push there, especially with the new surface. In FP1 the balance wasn’t as good as it could have been, but we made strong progress between sessions and I’m happy with the direction we took.
“There’s still some work to do overnight, and with the weather set to change, we’ll need to stay focussed – but we’re in a good position and I’m excited to see what we can do. It was amazing seeing so many of my fans in red, which I’m really grateful for and I hope I can bring them some good results this weekend!
Having ended up seventh quickest, Leclerc has revealed that he tried out a series of setup directions across the two sessions despite the interruptions which has enabled Ferrari to learn “a lot about” the SF-25.
“It was a constructive day, we tried many different set-ups throughout the practice sessions and I feel that I learned a lot about our car and how we can extract the most from it in the upcoming races.
“We didn’t put everything together, with multiple red flags and traffic interrupting FP2, but I think that our performance is better than it is on paper right now. It will be interesting to see how the change in conditions, in particular in terms of the wind direction, will affect tomorrow’s sessions,” concluded Leclerc.
