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Charles Leclerc Had Very Ambitious Plans for Ferrari in the Bahrain GP

Published 03/31/2021, 9:15 AM EDT

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via Reuters

Charles Leclerc finished the race in 6th place in the opening round in Bahrain. The Ferrari driver thought he could have kept Mercedes’s Bottas behind after he overtook him in the opening lap.

However, that wasn’t the case has Bottas finished the race ahead of Leclerc in third place while both Ferrari drivers didn’t get a chance to get on the podium as Leclerc finished 6th and his new teammate Sainz came 8th.

Ferrari earned 12 points over the weekend courtesy of their drivers. The Italian teammate hopes to get a win or a podium as they prepare themselves for their home Grand Prix at Imola.

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via Reuters

Charles Leclerc states that he could have kept Bottas in his mirrors after passing him

In the post-race interview Leclerc said, “I managed to get past him but without taking stupid risks. Before the race, you always try to imagine yourself and what were the fights that I would pick and the others that I wouldn’t.”

via Reuters

Leclerc added, “Valtteri was a bit of a question mark because I think in second practice he was not as competitive as we would have expected him to be. So we had a hope of maybe keeping him behind, which was not the case in the race.”

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Leclerc believes there is still work to do at Ferrari

The Maranello-based team had a rough season last season, only earning 131 points which saw them 6th in the championship. The season opener gave the Italian team hope as both their drivers earned the team points.

After the race Leclerc told Sky Italia as quoted by PlanetF1, “I made a good start at the beginning of the race, then I managed to handle the tyres quite well. Maybe we did the pit-stop a bit early, but we did that because we wanted to put our opponents under pressure.”

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“And we managed to do that, but then at the end of the race we suffered with the tyres. I think that in general we handled the race quite well and the pace as well was not bad, and this is important. Then, for sure, we are not where we want to be yet.” Leclerc concluded.

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The second round of Formula One is just weeks away, and the team hopes to do even better in Italy as it is their home Grand Prix. Can Leclerc and Sainz make Ferrari proud in Imola? Only time will give us the answers to those questions.

Hakkinen Explains How Leclerc Beat Vettel by Huge Margins at Ferrari F1

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Written by:

Arpit Gomes

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Arpit Gomes is an F1 author at EssentiallySports. Currently pursuing his Journalism degree from Xavier’s Institute, he is a big fan of McLaren and their driver Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. Arpit always looks forward to the paddock moving to Spa and drivers dealing with the exciting Eau Rouge corner as well the straight at Monza.
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