Charles Leclerc says Ferrari will be in the mix for victory in Saudi Arabia

Charles Leclerc says that Ferrari will be in the mix for victory this weekend at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque earned the first race win of the season last weekend in the Ferrari as the Scuderia sealed a one-two finish, ahead of the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Indeed, the Prancing Horse is looking pretty strong at the moment and Leclerc believes that they will be in the mix for victory again this weekend, though he stopped short at labelling them favourites overall.

“I feel as good as I was feeling in Bahrain so we’ll see,” he said ahead of practice.

“The track characteristics are a bit different [in Saudi compared to Bahrain] and I don’t expect us or Red Bull to bring major upgrades so the track will decide who is on top and hopefully we will be again.

“Overall the feeling is we have a strong car that can fight more or less anywhere.

“The season has already started and every opportunity we have we need to take, like we did last week.

“It’s important we’re fighting for the top positions here and then we’ll see for the rest of the season, development is going to be huge this year and we need to be on top of it.

“I think we’ll be in the mix. Whether we are favourite or not, I do not know. I think Red Bull will be extremely strong around here.”

Leclerc then went on to top the first practice session on Friday afternoon, just ahead of Max Verstappen, so it’s clear that the Scuderia are once again looking good this weekend.