Leclerc (to Italian media):
Are we on par with Mercedes and Red Bull over one lap? [Right now] yes, but then, in qualifying, they always seem to find something that we don’t. Unfortunately, I think we’re in that same situation again, but I don’t want to be pessimistic. I hope tomorrow we’ll make a step forward with the car and that the situation turns around: if they’re ahead of us on Saturday, it will be too hard to overtake them in the race. It’s in qualifying that we need to make progress, because we can’t expect miracles or something special on Sunday.
It’s bad to say it, but honestly I feel that the front row will be very difficult. The second row would already be a great result for us, because right now we’re more realistically looking at the third row if everything goes well. The goal is to do the best we can, and I hope we manage to pull off a miracle and even get on the front row. But if the second row is what we can achieve, then we’ll take it.
Also adding this bit since we were discussing it here... I told you they're adrenaline junkies, as long as they get to drive the car, they don't care about their own health
I’ve always said that the best medicine for me is to stay in the car. After that, I don’t feel in the pain, so while in the car I have no problems. When I get out of the car, I can feel that I’m not at 100%, but honestly, I don’t think it has an impact on how I feel in the car or its performance.
Hamilton:
The first session was positive, the balance was good and there didn’t seem to be much to change for the next session. But then the second free practice session turned out to be more challenging because I struggled to find consistency in performance. We’ll analyze the data collected this evening; we completed the program, including the long runs, so we have a good amount of information to work with.
He was also asked if he thinks the brake issues are fixable overnight and gave a resounding No.
