Leclerc: "Good surprise" to be quicker than Red Bull

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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc admitted that he had expected Red Bull to be faster in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Leclerc took pole position with a final lap clocking in at 1:30.558s, which was 0.123s quicker than reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

It's the Monegasque driver's tenth career pole, and his first since he claimed the top spot for the start of last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. However, Ferrati hasn't won a race since 2019.

“It feels good,” he told the media in parc ferme after the finish of qualifying at Bahrain International Circuit. "The last few years have been incredibly difficult for the team.

Read also: Leclerc snatches Bahrain pole from Verstappen and Sainz

"I knew it was just a matter of time before we got back to the top because we were working well, but until you actually do it, you always have the doubt.

“We were quite hopeful that this was an opportunity to be back in the front," he continued. "I think we have worked extremely well as a team to find ourselves again in a position to fight for for better places.

“We were pretty sure that Red Bull was going to be a bit quicker than us also in qualifying,” he admitted. “But a good surprise it wasn’t the case!"

Leclerc said that it had been "a very tricky qualifying session" despite being quickest in Q1 as well as Q3.

“I wasn’t completely happy with my driving but we managed to do that lap in Q3 and we’re starting from pole, so I’m very happy," he said.

It's the first qualifying session for this year's cars after new rules and regulations were introduced over the winter.

“From the driving point it’s completely different compared to last year,” he reported.

“Testing was very useful for this. I tried many different driving styles and still need to find the perfect one. There’s definitely much more to come hopefully from us.”

However it remains to be seen whether today's one lap speed will translate to an equally effective long distance race pace in Sunday's race with Leclerc acknowledging Ferrari must stay cautious and not get carried away with today's success.

“Tomorrow is not going to be easy," he admitted. "Tyre degradation here is a thing, especially with this increase of weight there is this year.

"We need to focus on that and hopefully have a good race tomorrow," he added. "Wwe need to finish the weekend on a high!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.