Charles Leclerc says he does not expect to incur a grid penalty as a result of the changes Ferrari were forced to make to his car; watch the British GP live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase; qualifying on Saturday at 3pm and lights out for the race on Sunday at 3pm
Friday 7 July 2023 19:22, UK
Charles Leclerc says his Ferrari "should be fine" for Saturday after an electrical issue ruled him out of second practice at the British Grand Prix on Friday.
Leclerc's SF-23 suffered the problem as Ferrari were preparing to send him out on track at Silverstone at the start of the session, and the Italian team were unable to repair the issue in time to enable any running.
Leclerc also allayed fears that the issue could leave him facing a grid penalty in Sunday's race, with the Monegasque having already used up his allowance of control electronics and energy store units for the season.
"There was a small problem on the car, but it's like this, I think the team has identified what went wrong," said Leclerc, who earlier finished fifth in first practice.
"We've changed basically everything that was on the car and it should be fine for tomorrow.
"An electrical issue, so it shouldn't have any influence on our weekend, apart from the lack of kilometres and laps in FP2."
There was some encouragement for Ferrari as Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz finished second to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who is seeking a sixth successive race victory.
Leclerc was pleased with Ferrari's pace over one lap and is optimistic about what his team can achieve in a potentially wet qualifying session on Saturday, but remained cautious over their hopes in Sunday's race.
"That's a bit unfortunate because that (Practice Two) is normally where we prepare the race and Sunday seems to be dry, so we'll go a little bit into the unknown there," Leclerc said.
"But tomorrow should be very different with rain around, so let's see.
"In FP1, of course we learnt a few things, then we did all the changes to learn more in FP2 that we couldn't test, so that's a bit of a shame.
"I think we'll come back with the car I had in FP1 as the feeling was pretty good, then learning when you don't drive is pretty difficult."
Saturday July 8
9:15am: F3 Sprint
11:15am: British GP Practice Three (session starts 11:30am)
1:10pm: F2 Sprint
2:15pm: British GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: BRITISH GP QUALIFYING
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 9
8:10am: F3 Feature Race
9:50am: F2 Feature Race
11:50am: Porsche Supercup
1:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - British GP build-up
3pm: The BRITISH GRAND PRIX
5pm: Chequered Flag: British GP reaction
6pm: Ted's Notebook
