Marcus Ericsson felt positive after Friday’s running at the Red Bull Ring, with the Swede ending eleventh fastest in first practice and fourteenth in the second.
Despite finishing behind Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team team-mate Charles Leclerc in both sessions, he was less than two-tenths away from the Ferrari Driver Academy star in the morning session but was just 0.103 seconds in the afternoon, and he says he now has a lot of confidence in the C37-Ferrari.
Last weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard he made it through to the second phase of Qualifying for the first time this season and with the pace he showed on Friday, he has high hopes of a repeat performance on Saturday, with the Swede also eyeing his second top ten result of the season on Sunday to add to the two points he earned back in the Bahrain Grand Prix in April.
“We completed a good number of laps and ran on all of the three tyre compounds for the weekend,” said Ericsson, who’s best time of the day of 1:06.199s was 1.620 seconds off the best time set by Lewis Hamilton. “We built on what we learned in France last weekend, with a set-up that suits my driving style well.
“We were in the midfield today, which is positive. Tonight, we will work on optimising everything, so that we can have a strong performance tomorrow.”
