Charles Leclerc almost realised his dream of winning his first ever F1 grand prix today, only for that dream to be snatched away from him in the dying stages of the Bahrain GP.
The young Ferrari driver had the strongest possible weekend, winning all sessions, including Qualifying and then battling hard to regain P1 after he lost out on it post Turn 1.
After he took charge of the race, he drove ever so brilliantly, controlling the pace and leading the race as if he had been doing so for ages. However, just when he thought he was about to clinch his first race win, his engine gave up on him and he had to settle for P3.
In the end, the safety car brought on by the dual failure of the Renault cars meant that Leclerc was able to hang onto that 3rd place, as in normal race conditions, Verstappen would have easily overtaken him.
Despite all the heartbreak, Charles Leclerc was all smiles after the race and did not seem to agitated on the team radio. He understood how all of this was part of the game and conveyed the same message in his post-race interview, showing incredible maturity.
“It happens. Unfortunately it was not our day. Of course I’m extremely disappointed. A very hard one to take but thanks to the team… Congratulations to Lewis and Valtteri” Leclerc said.
Lewis Hamilton benefitted from that Charles Leclerc fiasco. The 5 time world champion thus wanted to say a couple of words for Leclerc and how he felt the Ferrari driver was undone by an engine issue.
“It was a really, really hard race today. Charles did such a great job so it must be devastating for him. The fight with Vettel was great fun for me” Hamilton said.
