Leclerc hails Ferrari's 'most positive practice of season'

Charles Leclerc has labelled Ferrari's opening day at the Australian Grand Prix as the Scuderia's "most positive of the season".

Ferrari has struggled in the opening two rounds of the new campaign, despite pushing Red Bull closest in qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Tyre degradation issues plagued the race in Bahrain, before the SF-23 fell way off the pace in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, with Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finishing behind both Red Bulls, Fernando Alonso and both Mercedes drivers.

But having finished Friday practice at Albert Park second, Leclerc has a brighter outlook ahead of the weekend.

"We did quite a lot of scans in terms of set-up direction again," said the Monégasque.

"I feel like the feeling is a bit better than the other races. That is positive.

"It is probably our most positive FP of the season, which doesn't mean much but at least it is a Friday that finishes on a positive note.

"So we need to do another step in the right direction tomorrow and we will be closer to the Red Bulls."

Sainz in the dark

Sainz remains grounded on his potential for the weekend having experimented with set-ups on Friday before the rain came to thwart representative running in FP2.

"We did use the FP1 to try some very different things on the car to see if we could find a bit of performance for the package we have now," said the Spaniard.

"We did seem to understand a bit better and find a couple of things that could help us but until we put it in practice in a proper quali lap, we will not know."

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