Charles Leclerc led a surprise 1-2 for the Italian marquee in second practice, with only a tenth separatin🎃g him and teammate Carlos Sainz.

Lewis Hamilton ended the day in third, nearly 0๊.4s off Leclerc’s impressive 1m11.684s benchmark.

When asked about Ferrari’s impressive turn of pace, Hamilton said: “Great day,🎉 weather’s been great, just feels really cool to be back on track. It’s rapid this track, absolutely mesmerising every time you get the opportunity to drive. It’s a challenge, the Ferraris are really strong, surprising to see them improve s🦋o much but that’s great, it means more competition.”

Hamilton was then asked if he felt Ferrari’s pace was genuine, and he replied: “I’m seeing what you’re seeing and I’m general🐬ly just focused on my job but it looks like it.”

Valtteri Bottas tr💞ailed his teammate in both practice sessions in the principality, ending the second session fifth-fas෴test overall.

The Finn believes Mercedes has work to do in getting its tyres up to temperature in preparation for the first flying lap after struggling for t꧟yre warm-up.

“I feel that, from my side, I’m lacking from the front end in the car on this track. We’ve had similar issues, a little bit, in some tracks, mid-corner, and this is mainly medium and slow speed corners and if you don’t have the feeling on the front, if it’s go⭕ing to turn in or not, you can easily lose quite a bit of time.

“Also, it feels like our car is a bit stiff, like all the bumps and the cambers on the corners, it’s quite upsetting, so it’s something we’ll have a look into. It will be important. Today, for the first lap, I couldn’t get them to work yet, so we need to work hard tomorrow and try to figure it out. I feel like some cars might have a bit of an advant🌟age to us, on that.”