Having been in rivalry for a potential second-place end, Charles Leclerc completed the Bahrain Grand Prix in fourth place. The mid-race security automobile interruption left the Monegasque rue Ferrari’s possibilities on a day when extra was potential for the Scuderia.
Ferrari determined to start out each drivers on new Medium tyres, not like these round them that had all gone for used Softs. Ranging from second, Charles Leclerc paid the worth for this, dropping locations to George Russell and Lando Norris.
His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was operating the place he began in ninth place. When Oscar Piastri pitted for tyres on lap 14, Leclerc discovered himself within the lead with Hamilton second. The SF-25s made a double pit cease on lap 17, taking over one other set of Mediums, with the Monegasque rejoining fifth, earlier than instantly passing Pierre Gasly for fourth.
The seven-time F1 champion rejoined tenth and was instantly on the assault, catching and passing the group forward, within the order Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Esteban Ocon, getting as excessive as fifth when Gasly made his second cease.
Nearer the entrance, Leclerc was now the quickest driver on monitor, to the extent he caught and handed Norris for third place. At this level, the Ferraris had been on more energizing rubber than these round them, which gave them a level of flexibility when it got here to how lengthy to increase the second stint and relating to which compound to make use of for the ultimate stint.
Nevertheless, a collision additional down the order on lap 32 introduced out the Security Automobile, so that everybody dived into the pits for a pit cease that price about half the same old time. At this level, there was no possibility however to pit for a closing time, becoming Hards to each vehicles to go all the way in which to the chequered flag, having misplaced any benefit of being on more energizing tyres.
Within the closing phases, Leclerc started to battle on his Exhausting tyres and Norris, in higher form on the Mediums overtook him with 5 laps remaining, in order that Leclerc needed to accept fourth place, three seconds down whereas Hamilton completed the 57-lap race in P5.
There are not any regrets after a race like this, we simply want to search out some extra tempo. We pushed a bit on the primary stint and the second was even sooner, however as soon as the Security Automobile reset issues, our tempo simply wasn’t adequate to battle the McLarens and George (Russell) within the Mercedes.Usually, there may be not a selected kind of nook the place we’re missing, we simply want extra grip all spherical.
Reflecting on his race, Leclerc felt he’d completed “the whole lot” in his quest to assert a primary podium of the 12 months, however he nonetheless hopes that his upgraded SF25 will ship a good higher efficiency at this weekend’s race in Jeddah.
“We are going to perceive our improve higher in Jeddah subsequent week, I expect to find out what we are going to find out about it there. A child step [forward] however we want many child steps earlier than attending to the place we would like.
“As I stated firstly of the weekend we must be cautious. We introduced that improve right here and this isn’t the most effective monitor to extract the utmost out of that improve and I’m certain that subsequent week we might be extracting a bit of bit extra efficiency out of this improve.”
Concentrate on the sounds in Bahrain đź‘‚ pic.twitter.com/ZtTkxREscj
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 14, 2025
As for the 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc was left to rue his fortunes in Manama after the security automobile intervention hindered his offset technique.
“I’m a bit upset, on the finish of the day we did the whole lot,” he added. “The beginning was very tough with the medium [tyre], we misplaced lots of locations after which we needed to be affected person.
“We went a bit longer after which it began to repay, after which there was a Security Automobile which sort of re-zeroed the whole lot after which on the onerous [tyre] we had been struggling. It’s a disgrace we misplaced out on the rostrum however I felt this was the most effective we may do at present.
“It’s disappointing as a result of when you could have a lot battle in the direction of the top, and you’re preventing for a primary podium of the season, and the tempo is simply not adequate to realize that, so I hope that quickly we may have a automobile so as to get again on it.
“There have been totally different methods that we had been talking of and a kind of was the one-stop however it was undoubtedly courageous and I’m pleased we didn’t do this ultimately as a result of that may have been very troublesome with the Security Automobile afterward.”
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