"McLaren seem to be quite a bit ahead of us," Leclerc offers his view on the pecking order at the Hungaroring

Despite having finished in third place in both practice sessions on Friday, Ferrari's eight-time F1 race winner Charles Leclerc offered his view on the pecking order at the Hungaroring, suggesting that McLaren might be out of reach this weekend.

On the back of a competitive showing last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, Ferrari managed to carry over their fine form to the Hungaroring, at least Friday’s practice sessions indicated that the Scuderia might be in competition for top positions this weekend.

Charles Leclerc finished third in the opening session which the Monégasque managed to replicate in the second one-hour session, albeit he was unable to stay within touch of the field-leading McLarens.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton looked to struggle to put together a flying lap, but his last effort in FP2 saw the seven-time F1 champion take sixth in the final classifications.

Speaking of his day at the Hungaroring, Leclerc stated: “We went through our planned programme in both sessions. McLaren seem to be quite a bit ahead of us but we will stay focused on ourselves and try to turn things around tomorrow.

"I don’t think there is much we can do differently, so it will be all about reproducing the work we did today," the Monegasque continued.

"For now it looks like it’s our position, and realistically I think it’s going to be very tough to go and beat the McLarens tomorrow – they seem to be a step forward, but never say never.

“The feeling with the car has been pretty positive so far. We’ve got to do some steps, more in the right direction for tomorrow, but for now the feeling is good.”

Pressed on whether he feels that Ferrari are clearly ahead of the rest of the pack, Leclerc hesitated to give a clear answer: “For now we are, but we can never rule them out.

“It’s always very variable from Friday to Saturday, so I think we’ll have to see tomorrow when we come to the track and see with the new conditions whether the pecking order is the same."