Charles Leclerc says his qualifying display was “a bit too messy” until the final effort that netted him pole position for Formula 1’s opener in Bahrain.
Leclerc beat reigning World Champion Max Verstappen to grab pole position in Bahrain by a tenth of a second, with team-mate Carlos Sainz third.
It marked Leclerc’s 10th career pole at the venue where he claimed his maiden pole three years ago.
“Today the car was great,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy qualifying session, very difficult to put the tyres in the right window and actually put a lap together.
“I struggled quite a bit during qualifying but the last Q3 lap was good enough for pole so very happy about this.
“[It was] just putting everything together. Before it was a bit too messy, there was always a mistake here and there. On my fast lap I nearly lost it in Turn 7 which was quite tricky but I still managed to put everything together more or less.
“And again struggling with the tyres, especially for the first sector I’ve been struggling a lot. The last run felt a little bit better for that but we still need to understand because it didn’t feel as good as it did for the whole weekend – so there was maybe a little bit of performance left there.”
Ferrari is chasing its first victory since 2019, having slumped down the order in 2020, before recovering to third overall – via five podiums – in 2021.
Leclerc believes Saturday’s pole position validates the squad’s work and removes doubts over its ability.
“Obviously the last two years for the team have been extremely difficult,” he said.
“After 2019 that was positive we had two very difficult years where I knew it was just a matter of time before we got back to the top because we were working well.
“But until you actually do it you always have the doubts, and finally this season we managed to do a car that is back to where it deserves, which is to at least be in the mix for the top positions.”
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