Charles Leclerc (Ferrari/5th): What Hamilton did better in Malaysia

Fifth fastest in the final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, but fourth on the grid for Charles Leclerc: the Monegasque driver will be moved up one place due to Isack Hadjar’s grid penalty (five places back, for fitting new engine components).

Normally, Leclerc is at least on a par with Lewis Hamilton, but this time the Briton is on the front row, diagonally behind Max Verstappen, whilst Leclerc is only in P5. Leclerc, this year’s Silverstone winner, explains what went wrong.

“Lewis put in an extremely good lap; he practically managed to slot all the pieces of the jigsaw into the right place, so – well done to him.”

“For my part, I hadn’t anticipated how the track would develop between Q1 and Q3; the more I pushed, the more I felt it wasn’t going to work out.”

“I like cars that are very responsive on the front axle, but as soon as we were in Q3 and I was pushing hard in the first sector, the car started to slide more and more and I lost a lot of time. The further the qualifying session went on, the more I struggled with understeer. It’s all my fault, because Lewis has shown what’s possible with the car, but that won’t have any impact on the race.”

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When asked whether he could secure his first podium finish since mid-July in Belgium (when he finished second behind Kimi Antonelli), Charles said: “Yes, of course. Everything we’ve seen so far gives us hope that we’ll be up there at the front tomorrow.”

“Everyone’s seen that Max is quick. Mercedes’ performance is the hardest to predict; they’ve had practice sessions here where they were extremely quick, and others where they were slower. I expect them to be quick in the race. Otherwise, it’ll be interesting, both from a strategic point of view and in the event of rain.”