Leclerc tops Bahrain GP practice in Sepang but names Red Bull and Mercedes as the pace-setters

Leclerc quickest on Friday but wary of rivals

Charles Leclerc set the pace in second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Friday at the Sepang International Circuit, but the Monegasque was quick to deflect any suggestion that Ferrari hold the upper hand heading into the weekend.

Leclerc ended the opening day of running fourth in FP1 before going fastest in FP2, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton also in the mix thanks to a P6 and P5 in the two sessions respectively. Yet when pressed on his own day, Leclerc pointed instead to Red Bull and Mercedes as the teams to beat.

"I mean it's been a very, very difficult day overall," Leclerc said. "The track conditions were very tricky – the track was quite dirty actually and very slippery – so I think things will change and evolve a lot from today to tomorrow.

"We've got to be on the good side of things, anticipating that in the best possible way, but today hasn't been a bad day. I felt quite good with the car, but I still feel like the Red Bull, for example, is standing out this weekend so far. Isack [Hadjar], I think, did some mistakes in the last part of the lap, and Max didn't do the lap on the soft tyres, so I don't think we are the most competitive, and also the Mercedes is a bit difficult to understand."

Mercedes remain the unknown quantity

Mercedes have been the class leaders of the 2026 campaign and arrived at Sepang with a significant upgrade package, but George Russell and Kimi Antonelli could only manage seventh and eighth in FP2. Both, however, were unable to put a clean lap together on the soft tyres, and Leclerc expects them to rise quickly.

"They don't often get it wrong, so I wouldn't underestimate them," he said. "I mean, I'm sure that once they all put everything together, they'll be very strong. They've been the favourite since the beginning, since the first race, and normally when they put something on the car it works very well. So yeah, let's see how it goes but the best thing we can do anyway is to focus on ourselves and maximise what we have."

Degradation tipped as the weekend's defining factor

Beyond the searing heat and the threat of rain, tyre degradation emerged as the central challenge, with Leclerc branding the wear "insane" over the radio during FP1. He believes it will ultimately define the Grand Prix.

"The degradation is going to be the main talking point of the weekend, so yeah, that will make the race very interesting and we need to be on top of that," Leclerc assessed. "Today, we've seen a lot of degradation. I think we have normally quite a good race car but there's a lot work to be done and a small difference in some corners can make a huge difference in degradation.

"But we had a good day today. I think we did a lot of work, we learned a lot of things, but there is still plenty to work on before Sunday."

Vasseur echoes the warning

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur concurred with his driver's reading of the day, acknowledging that Sepang's conditions would take some getting used to.

"Over the last five or six weekends [this is] the first one we are more focused on degradation than something else," Vasseur said. "Conditions are a bit extreme and, for everybody, it's almost a new track.

"It means that we have a lot to do and a lot to improve. Also, the track was quite poor in terms of grip today – it will probably improve tomorrow. It means that we need to anticipate everything to be ready for tomorrow."