Bahrain GP: Charles Leclerc expresses delight after sealing Ferrari one-two

Charles Leclerc couldn’t hide his delight over his victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, with the Ferrari man helping seal a one-two for the Scuderia.

Leclerc started the race from pole and took everything thrown at him in his stride in a drive that was a reminder that there are world-class drivers up and down the field away from Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen – they just need the car to show it.

Certainly, the Ferrari is looking like one of the cars to beat this year at this early stage, and they’ll hope to make hay whilst the sun shines as well as they did today with Mercedes off of the pace and Red Bull suffering a double retirement.

Post-race, Leclerc was naturally delighted and he had this to say on the result, and the difficulties Ferrari have had in recent years on their journey back to the top:

“So happy. The last two years have been incredibly difficult but we knew this was going to be a big opportunity for the team and we’ve started in the best way possible. We couldn’t hope for better and it’s incredible to be back at the top.”

Leclerc also proved his mettle in a wheel-to-wheel fight with Max Verstappen that lasted several laps, and kept his cool late on as a Safety Car period was called following a fire for Pierre Gasly in his AlphaTauri.

On the battle with Max, Leclerc said:

“I was trying to be as careful as possible with the DRS and twice it worked out.”

Whilst on the Safety Car the Ferrari man remarked:

“I didn’t want it but then I did a great restart and that gave me a little bit of margin to manage the race to the end.”

Certainly, Leclerc made a real statement this afternoon that if the Ferrari is quick enough he is going to take some beating, and he’ll look to take that form to Saudi