F1, Charles Leclerc: “Ferrari okay but not pole”

Leclerc: “It’s confirmed that Red Bull and maybe Aston Martin are faster.”

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc after the first two free practice sessions in Bahrain pushes away the possibility of the Cavallino getting the first pole of the year: “The feeling was good, better than testing without a shadow of a doubt, I’m happy with how I drove and how the car went. It is confirmed that Red Bull is a bit faster, maybe Aston Martin as well, but we have to check tomorrow.”

“I don’t think we will have the performance to make the pole, let’s try to be in the group and take the opportunities,” explained the Ferrarista driver. “It seems we have some margin, but we don’t know the work of the others. We will try to gain performance tonight with the engineers and fight in qualifying.”

Carlos Sainz lagged further behind: “A more complicated Friday than we initially expected. The balance was different than in testing and we changed the car throughout the sessions to try to correct the main flaws. But it’s only Friday and I am confident that we will analyze everything overnight and take a step forward ahead of tomorrow.”