Despite Scuderia Ferrari seemingly one step off the mark throughout the F1 Bahrain GP weekend, Charles Leclerc put in an impressive performance to set the third fastest time of the Qualifying session. However, despite qualifying third, the Monégasque driver will start the race from the front row. He was promoted to P2 after Stewards handed Mercedes’ George Russell a one-place grid penalty for entering the fast lane of the pit lane before a re-start time was confirmed. Russell will now start the race in P3, alongside Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in P4, and ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli who was demoted to P4 for a similar offence.
Leclerc surprised to finish P3 after “tricky” Qualifying
During his on-track interview at the F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying session, Leclerc stated that he had not explected to have had such a strong Qualifying session. He explained that while he had known that track evolution would be crucial, he had had a tricky Q3 due to some discomfort on his old tyres.
“I mean, honestly, I didn’t expect P3,” Leclerc said, “I knew that in Q3 there was some lap time. I knew that in Q1 and Q2, I just had to be patient and wait for the track to come towards me in Q3, which was a bit tricky because at the beginning of Q3 everything felt really bad with the old tyres.”
Leclerc hoping to extract more performance from SF-25
While Leclerc acknowledged that new tyres had inproved his feeling behind the wheel, he reiterated that his P3 finish had been unexpected. He hypothesised that his strong performance was the result of Ferrari testing “a lot of extreme set-ups” over the recent race weekends. With him starting the race in a stronger-than-expected postition, Leclerc hopes to extract more performance from his SF-25.
“But then as soon as we put the new tyres it was quite a bit better. So I’m happy. I did not expect it, but I think it’s a result of… We explored quite a lot of extreme set-ups in the last few weekends and it feels like I found my way a little bit, and little by little I hope there will be more performance to extract from this car in the weekends to come.”
Upgrades to SF-25 brought “small gains”
When asked if the new upgrades introduced by Ferrari ahead of the 2025 F1 Bahrain GP, had played a significant role in his strong performance, Leclerc commended his team for their hard work. However, he believes that the Sakhir International Circuit was not best track for Ferrari to introduce the new upgrades, though he said that the small gains were always good.
“Yeah, definitely. I mean the team has pushed like crazy to try and bring those upgrades here. I don’t think it’s the best track to have these upgrades on, but it’s always good.”
While Leclerc described the team’s gains in Bahrain as “small”, he believes that the team will see greater improvements in Jeddah.
“It’s a small gain, it’s not a big one, but hopefully next week it will be a bit more of a step forward.”
“But again,” the Ferrari driver added, “I think if we are P3 today, especially considering such fine margins with P4, the upgrades helped.”
Leclerc: “Really good” qualifying lap the result of “a lot of work”
Though Leclerc admits that the lap which earned him his P3 finish in the F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying session was “really good”, he does not believe that his success is related to his history of strong performances in Bahrain.
“It was really good, but I don’t think today’s performance relies on my record on this track. I think it’s the result of a lot of work.”
He explained that Ferrari had “gone in an interesting direction setup-wise” after a disappointing start to the season. Leclerc attributed his success in Bahrain to these changes, which claimed had helped him extract more from his SF-25.
“At the beginning of the season, we obviously weren’t where we wanted to be and since two or three races I’ve gone in an interesting direction setup-wise, which seems to help me to extract a bit more out of the car. That’s what I’m trying to do every weekend. “
While the Monégasque driver is pleased with his team’s improvements in Bahrain, he acknowledged that there was still much more work to be done. He explained that he did not think that there was more to be extracted from the car.
“For now, it seems to be better and better, which is a good sign for the future. I’m happy with the lap. It was very tricky to put everything together, but I think I did so. There wasn’t much more inside the car.”
He agreed with Russell’s comments regarding a more challenging race on Sunday.
“Again, I think as George mentioned, I did not expect to be so close to pole position — just like him. But tomorrow is going to be a bit more of a challenge.”
Leclerc: Clean air and good tyre management key to successful F1 Bahrain GP race
When asked to expand on his expectations for Sunday’s race, Leclerc stated that he expected McLaren to have a clear advantage over the rest. While he did not rule out Ferrari, he acknowledged that they would face fierce competition from Mercedes, and from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
“Honestly, McLaren seems to be extremely good with tyre management and more specifically the overheating of the tyres. We’ve seen it in FP3 — I think everybody was struggling a lot — but Oscar put a lap in that was very impressive. I think tomorrow in the race there will be lots of that, so I don’t think we expect to challenge the McLarens, but we might be pretty close with the Mercedes, also with the Red Bulls.”
Despite this, Leclerc expects “an interesting race”, though he noted that tyre management strategies and racing in clean air would play a major role in determining the outcome of the F1 Bahrain GP race.
“So it’s going to be an interesting race. We all have different tyres. A good start will obviously be essential, especially with high temperatures like this, to have clean air plays a big role.”
New SF-25 floor helped Leclerc finish Qualifying P3
While Leclerc again reiterated that Ferrari had not been able to extract the most from their new SF-25 upgrades, he seized the opportunity to praise his team’s efforts. The Ferrari driver believes that this work, and the new upgrades, had given the slight edge that had allowed him his P3 finish.
“Yeah, the team has done a really, really good job. We’ve all pushed quite a lot in the last few weeks because we’ve been struggling with performance. I know that at the factory they’ve been pushing like crazy to try and bring this floor a bit earlier on, and that definitely made the difference.”
“Because if I look at the gap with P4, it’s not that much and I’m pretty sure that without the floor I wouldn’t be P3. So that’s already one position won. I’m curious to see what it will do tomorrow.”
“However, it’s probably not the best track to extract the maximum out of this new upgrade, but in the next few weekends we shall see more of it.”
