Charles Leclerc conceded it would take a "miracle" for Ferrari to overcome "the worst Friday of the season" at the Dutch Grand Prix. 

The McLaren of Lando Norris topped the timesheets across both sessions in Zandvoort, leading the way from Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and team-mate Oscar Piastri. 

But lower down the order, Leclerc, who took pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix last time out, was unable to get anywhere near the top of the standings. 

Leclerc and Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton both finished outside the top 13 in first practice, and only improved to eighth and sixth, respectively, in the second session. 

The pair were nearly one second adrift of pace-setter Norris, who started the weekend nine points behind Piastri in the race for the Drivers' Championship. 

"I would sum it up as a very, very, very difficult Friday – probably the worst Friday of the season, which is right after the holidays, so it's a bit of a wake-up call," said Leclerc.

"We've had some difficult Fridays, and now it's up to us to turn the situation around. But for sure, it's not been an easy day. FP1 was extremely difficult.

"FP2 was slightly better but still very far off where we wanted to be. I don’t expect to fully return to the situation. 

"I think McLaren is in a league of its own with Aston Martin, in what was a surprise for us. We'll try to improve the car, because there is plenty to be done."

Continuing to dial it in practice day complete! pic.twitter.com/d0uzJ8gWF5

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 29, 2025

Leclerc and Hamilton were competitive in the first sector but both consistently lost time in the middle sector, which features long radius corners - a weakness of Ferrari's 2025 car.

"We are losing basically 90 per cent of the time in two corners," Leclerc added.

"There's something our car cannot do at the moment and we are trying to find out why it's so concentrated on two corners. We will try to find a solution. 

"It's a very strange season. I would never have said I would be on pole in Budapest. I don't want to have a target because after a difficult weekend, it's not an exciting target.

"But I'm looking forward to trying to turn the situation [around] and to make a miracle, but it won't be an easy weekend for us."

Hamilton, meanwhile, was more upbeat about the situation, despite spinning twice across both sessions on Friday. 

The seven-time world champion put the spins down to pushing too hard, but he remained confident of a positive result heading into Saturday's qualifying. 

"It's not been the worst of days. We were making progress. We were quite far off in FP1, a lot more than normal," Hamilton said. 

"The first lap felt pretty decent, then it was a bit of a challenge. We made some progress over lunch but still quite a chunk off.

"We have some work to do with the set-up. Pace-wise, I don't know how we will find eight tenths, but we will try our best."