Leclerc urges Ferrari to find "another step"

Charles Leclerc has insisted he has "quite a bit of work to do" after a "tricky" opening day of the Australian Grand Prix weekend despite topping the timesheets.

The championship leader led F1 title rival Max Verstappen in second practice at the revamped Albert Park circuit having trailed team-mate Carlos Sainz as part of a Ferrari one-two in the opening session.

All three drivers experienced issues throughout the day with traffic scuppering laps during qualifying simulation running, perhaps skewing the results of the session.

But despite a seemingly strong day lap time-wise, Leclerc was left cautious on his chances heading into qualifying in Melbourne.

"Probably a bit of a harder Friday on my side," said Leclerc.

"FP1 was a bit tricky and FP2 I improved the driving quite a bit but there is still quite a bit of work to do.

"I don't think anybody really put a lap together today. We need to keep focusing on ourselves and tomorrow's qualifying. Hopefully, we will do another step forward. Let's push."

Sainz - Albert Park "completely different" after alterations

The Albert Park circuit has been changed drastically since the last time F1 visited in 2019, with corners widened, the track resurfaced and the middle sector now a high-speed blast having had the old turn nine-10 chicane removed.

Addressing the changes, Sainz explained: "The track is completely different from what it used to be: it’s definitely faster and the new tarmac feels totally different in terms of grip as far as I can remember.

"We need to keep working on understanding how the tyres behave but, in general, I think we have a good baseline to start preparing for tomorrow’s qualifying."

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