<\/p>\n
Leclerc finished fourth in the opening session before setting the fastest time in second practice. Ferrari Teammate Lewis Hamilton placed sixth and fifth across the two sessions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Leclerc cautioned that the timesheets did not accurately reflect the competitive order because Red Bull and Mercedes failed to complete representative soft-tyre laps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a very, very difficult day overall,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cThe track conditions were very tricky. The track was quite dirty and very slippery.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc said conditions were likely to change significantly before qualifying as more running improved grip around the Sepang International Circuit. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be on the good side of things, anticipating that in the best possible way,\u201d Leclerc said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cToday hasn\u2019t been a bad day. I felt quite good with the car, but I still feel like Red Bull is standing out this weekend so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc said Isack Hadjar had made mistakes during the final part of a flying lap, while Max Verstappen had not completed a qualifying simulation on soft tyres. \u201cI don\u2019t think we are the most competitive,\u201d Leclerc said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mercedes Drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished seventh and eighth in second practice but were also unable to complete clean soft-tyre laps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mercedes brought a substantial upgrade package to Malaysia after establishing the strongest overall performance during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t often get it wrong, so I wouldn\u2019t underestimate them,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cOnce they put everything together, they\u2019ll be very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc identified tyre management as Ferrari\u2019s principal concern following high degradation during Friday\u2019s running.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe degradation is going to be the main talking point of the weekend,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cThat will make the race very interesting, and we need to be on top of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc said minor performance differences through individual corners could substantially affect tyre wear over a race distance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur agreed that degradation would require greater attention than during recent race weekends. \u201cConditions are a bit extreme and, for everybody, it\u2019s almost a new track,\u201d Vasseur said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe track was quite poor in terms of grip today. It will probably improve tomorrow, which means that we need to anticipate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–F1\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":47107,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-47106","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Charles Leclerc expects severe tyre degradation to shape the Malaysian Grand Prix despite leading Friday\u2019s second practice session for Ferrari at Sepang.","published_date":"","news_description":"Charles Leclerc expects severe tyre degradation to shape the Malaysian Grand Prix despite leading Friday\u2019s second practice session for Ferrari at Sepang.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47108,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47106\/revisions\/47108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}