Charles Leclerc said he was “extremely happy” to take pole position for the first time in his F1 career in his second race for Ferrari in Bahrain.
The Ferrari driver said he had worked to address the errors he made during his first qualifying run in Australia two weeks ago.“I’m extremely happy,” he said. “Obviously in the last race I was not very happy with my qualifying, I did some mistakes in Q3 and I really worked hard to try and not do the same mistakes here. And it seems like we did quite a good job.”
Leclerc beat team mate Sebastian Vettel to pole position after leading all three stages of qualifying. He said going up against his four-times champion team mate is “extremely hard because Seb is an amazing driver.”
“I have learned a lot from him and I will probably learn [more]. But today I’m very happy to be in front him so it’s a good day for me.”
Leclerc said his plans for the evening now are to “go to sleep and work hard for the race tomorrow.”
Vettel’s qualifying effort was compromised when he had to make a second run in Q2, which left him with only a single set of fresh tyres for Q3. He said he lost time in the middle sector on his final run.
“Of course you have to first of all make it to the end,” he said. “Maybe I was a bit shy in the second sector.
“But in the end I think Charles did a very good job today and he deserves to be on pole. I’m happy that with the one run I had at the end to get second and it puts us in a good place for tomorrow.”
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Mark Saunders (@mcs1)
30th March 2019, 16:32
Vettel extremely unhappy
kiufiu
30th March 2019, 18:18
What’s there to be happy about? He is not on pole.
AMG44 (@amg44)
30th March 2019, 16:34
Congrats to Charles. He looked the faster Ferrari driver and he delivered. Looking forward to an exciting race and hope Ferrari doesn’t use team orders to call off the fight between Lec and Vet.
Krn
30th March 2019, 16:44
Hamilton isn’t looking so happy. Ferrari has got its mojo back at least for now.
Ken
30th March 2019, 16:47
Max isn’t going to like this. A new star is born.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
30th March 2019, 17:16
+1
maiagus
30th March 2019, 18:05
Is LeBoss a appropriate nickname for LeClerc or is it too soon?
knightameer (@knightameer)
30th March 2019, 18:19
Would be really great if he wins the race and dedicate the win to his godfather Jules Bianchi.
Potsie (@potsie159)
31st March 2019, 5:40
…and his dad
Iosif (@afonic)
30th March 2019, 19:33
It amazes me how calm Charles is. He just got his first pole ever and he didn’t even celebrate in the radio. His first words were something like “points are being given tomorrow, let’s get the job done”. As if he knows that when the car is there, it’s simple to take pole! Vettel is going to have a tough time with that one, for sure!
knightameer (@knightameer)
30th March 2019, 19:54
This calmness is exactly what Ferrari needs to understand that given the right car, they now have a driver who can take the fight to Hamilton and Mercedes for a full season . Something seb couldn’t do the last two years.
mmertens (@mmertens)
31st March 2019, 0:21
Since I start following back in gp 3, he shows a maturity and calmness that is really remarkable. He’s always honest about his struggles when he doesn’t perform the way he believe he could. It’s a composure and calmness that allied with his speed shows to me that a great is arriving. 2018 could well develop to a Piquet /Schumacher scenario for Vettel. It’s going to be the greatest test for Vettel regarding team mates.