Leclerc suggests "McLaren is once again the car to beat, but Ferrari has been "pretty strong so far"

Having displayed strong race pace during his high-fuel simulation run, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed that while McLaren still has "the car to beat", the Scuderia has also been "pretty strong so far" at Silverstone.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc completed a solid day, racking up a total of 110 laps at Silverstone. The Scuderia had elected to fit both cars with a new power unit, as was the case for the majority of other teams.

The opening session saw Hamilton and Leclerc complete their programmes without any problems. The Monegasque started the session gathering data with rakes fitted to the front of his car.

The second one-hour session saw the Monegasque and the Briton run in qualifying trim before they switched their focus to a run with a heavier fuel load to evaluate race pace.

Having ended the first session third quickest, Leclerc went on to take second on the leaderboard in the late afternoon practice.

"The day was good," the Monegasque said. "We've been pretty strong so far so it's positive. I think we still need to find some pace in Qualifying.

"McLaren is once again probably the car to beat at the moment but in race pace I was happy. I'm finding my way, I'm changing quite a lot the car in weekends recently to try and find some pace in Qualifying.

"For now, I don't think I find a way for that, but in the race I'm really happy with where we are. I think we are very strong in the race but we've got to do a step forward in Qualifying."

Leclerc continued: "Today went quite well, the feeling in the cockpit was good, but we still have some work to do on the car. In our qualifying trim, we still seem to be a bit on the back foot, while we are more at ease with our race pace. I really enjoy driving on this track and I look forward to tomorrow."