Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc believes McLaren is on a “different planet” to its rivals, after a strong showing in Friday practice at Suzuka.

McLaren topped both sessions during Friday’s practice day ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, and Charles Leclerc believes the Woking-based squad are a step ahead of the rest.

Charles Leclerc makes telling McLaren admission

Following on from McLaren’s victories in the first two Grand Prix weekends, the papaya cars picked up where they left off upon arrival at Suzuka.

With F1 returning to the normal weekend format with two standard practice sessions, Lando Norris set the fastest time of first practice with a 1:28.5 with 24 laps on the board.

Chinese Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri responded to Norris’ pace in the second session, setting a 1:28.1 to go quicker than last year’s pole position time.

This time put him half a tenth clear of Norris, with the McLaren 1-2 some four-tenths clear of third-placed driver Isack Hadjar. With four red flag stoppages during the session, which compromised the run plans of many teams, it suggests there’s more time to be found for McLaren’s rivals – as well as McLaren itself.

Charles Leclerc, who finished the day in seventh and in the gaggle of six cars within half a second of Piastri, said he suspects McLaren is a clear step ahead of everyone.

“We need to be careful [about saying we’re in the mix] because McLaren seems to be on another planet,” he said.

“But I feel like I maybe have a bit more of an idea on how to maximize our potential, which is always a good thing.”

With Ferrari aiming to bounce back from its double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix, Leclerc said he believes there’s more performance to come from Ferrari as it pulls its Japanese weekend together.

“I thought it was quite positive,” he said.

“I’ve tried so many things today, and for that, I think it was a very constructive day.

“We didn’t put everything together, but I felt like the performance is probably better than what we are seeing on page one.

“So yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow, but I feel like everything we’ve learned today will be completely the opposite tomorrow, with a huge change of wind. It will be a big change, especially on a track like this.”

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The sporadic nature of driving on track during second practice disguised Ferrari’s potential, Leclerc hinted, saying that the limited time he did get allowed him to make tweaks to his car’s setup with an eye to longer-term comfort.

“To be honest, it was just frustrating because I wasn’t putting one lap on the board – every time there was either traffic or a red flag or another red flag or another red flag again,” he said.

“So that was frustrating in that way, but I think it was very constructive, though. We’ve made lots of changes. And yeah, it was a good day.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot from this car today, and I feel like I maybe understood what I wanted more for the future races. So that’s always a good thing.”

Norris, speaking after the session, said he believes McLaren is the team to beat, and identified Mercedes as a close contender.

“I still think we’re at the top, but I think George [Russell] was very quick this morning, just as quick as us,” he said.

“So I think Mercedes is in a good place. Maybe Red Bull looked a little bit further off, but they have looked further off into qualifying, and then they get a bit closer again.

“So, to be honest, I think the normal… but just a messy session. So I don’t think this session was probably the best example of where everyone was.

Maybe FP1 was a better example that you kind of saw teams in order, but I still expect it to be close and a tough battle tomorrow. I mean… I hope it’s not! I hope it’s nice and easy for us, but I’m sure, Mercedes, at least with George from today’s showings, will be challenging us a bit tomorrow.

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