'Difficult day, difficult car'; Ferrari struggles continue at Spa

Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were left to lament a wretched Friday of practice as Ferrari's woes continued ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

A year on from Leclerc's victory at Spa-Francorchamps, the Monégasque and Vettel finished a lowly 15th and 17th respectively on the FP2 timesheet.

In contrast, their times at the end of the corresponding session last season were a second faster than this year, with Leclerc 1.7secs and Vettel almost two seconds adrift of pacesetter in Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Summing up the day, Vettel initially conjured one word - "Difficult".

The four-time F1 champion added: "I think it was a difficult day for us. The car was difficult and tricky to drive. I guess that also means that we are not quite where we should be.

“We are looking currently to find options with the set-up. We tried a lot this afternoon but [we will] reset and try again and try something different and I’m sure tomorrow will be a bit better."

The pace of the SF1000 at a power-heavy track was underlined by the fact that George Russell split Leclerc and Vettel in 16th, while team-mate Nicholas Latifi was only 0.091s behind the German.

"I think it’s probably a surprise to be so far back," said Leclerc. "We tried quite a lot of things in FP2.

“At the beginning I tried something quite aggressive in downforce levels but it didn’t really work out so we came back on that.

"We are just lacking pace at the moment so we need to work hard to catch up but I am not expecting miracles for this weekend.”

He added: “It [the car] is quite unpredictable at the moment but then again I think last year and also before last year, there were very difficult Fridays but then we managed to come with a solution on Saturday and that is what we are working for, so hopefully we come with a solution tomorrow.”

Before you go...

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