Ferrari drivers upbeat over Canada prospects despite challenging Friday

While Lewis Hamilton and George Russell waved Mercedes' flag in practice for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz gave Ferrari something to be happy about as the rest of the weekend awaits.

The Ferrari driver was 0.126 seconds off Hamilton's pace, putting them in a good position to attack from in the final practice session and qualifying on Saturday.

Friday's opening practice session was derailed after five minutes when faults were reported on some CCTV cameras around the circuit. Fortunately, the second practice session was extended by 30 minutes, but it still left teams lacking crucial data.

READ: Mercedes' pace no fluke as Lewis Hamilton leads George Russell in Canada practice

"Not having that hour, or two hours, in between (the two practice) sessions to learn from the car and do a few set-up changes is a limitation, but we had a decent Friday," Sainz commented after FP2.

"I'm still not feeling 100% at home with the car. Especially under braking, I was struggling quite a bit, which we start to understand why now, and we will try to make changes for (the rest of the weekend)."

Sainz says that he and Ferrari will work on fine-tuning the SF-23's behaviour under braking going into FP3 and qualifying.

It's getting very dark out there ??Carlos Sainz is the fastest driver out on track so far#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6ZHAazaWTy

A good Friday

Sainz's teammate, Charles Leclerc, has not been his best self in 2023 and has struggled to get on top of a difficult-to-drive car. Yet, despite the apparent challenges, Leclerc says that Friday's practice session was among the best he's had in '23.

"Well, in terms of feeling, it's among the good Fridays for us," the Monegasque said. "I had a really, really good feeling with the car,