Having been in competition for a attainable 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 probabilities on a day when extra was attainable for the Scuderia.
Ferrari determined to begin 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 value 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 up 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 observe, 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.
Nonetheless, 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 remaining time, becoming Hards to each automobiles to go all the best way to the chequered flag, having misplaced any benefit of being on more energizing tyres.
Within the closing levels, Leclerc started to wrestle on his Laborious 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 aren’t any regrets after a race like this, we simply want to seek 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 struggle the McLarens and George (Russell) within the Mercedes.
Usually, there may be not a specific kind of nook the place we’re missing, we simply want extra grip all spherical.
Reflecting on his race, Leclerc felt he’d performed “all the pieces” in his quest to assert a primary podium of the yr, however he nonetheless hopes that his upgraded SF25 will ship an excellent 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’ll study it there. A child step [forward] however we want many child steps earlier than attending to the place we wish.
“As I stated initially of the weekend we should be cautious. We introduced that improve right here and this isn’t the perfect observe to extract the utmost out of that improve and I’m certain that subsequent week we might be extracting a little bit bit extra efficiency out of this improve.”
Concentrate on the sounds in Bahrain 👂 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 all the pieces,” he added. “The beginning was very difficult with the medium [tyre], we misplaced a number 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 type of re-zeroed all the pieces after which on the arduous [tyre] we had been struggling. It’s a disgrace we misplaced out on the rostrum however I felt this was the perfect we might do in the present day.
“It’s disappointing as a result of when you’ve got a lot struggle in the direction of the top, and you’re combating for a primary podium of the season, and the tempo is simply not adequate to attain that, so I hope that quickly we could have a automobile as a way 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 joyful we didn’t do this in the long run as a result of that may have been very troublesome with the Security Automobile afterward.”
