Vasseur, disappointed for Hamilton, aims for a podium for Leclerc in Bahrain

Thanks to a penalty received by the drivers Mercedes after the session, Charles Leclerc inherited the second place initially acquired by George Russell. The Monegasque, comfortable with his SF-25 having undergone some developments this weekend, seems to be in good condition to offer a first podium for the Team in the Grand Prix after a complex start to the season. On this subject, Frédéric Vasseur was pragmatic on Sky Sport.

"The podium is still possible and starting from third place we have to be ambitious (Mercedes' penalty was not yet known, editor's note). The problem for everyone is that we haven't done any very long runs on the tires, so we haven't tested the conditions that will be there tomorrow. But so far, we've always seemed to be in good condition over the long distance. We need to do a good job. We have an extra set of medium tires and we hope that will be an advantage."

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Disappointment for Hamilton, confidence in Ferrari's developments

Far from the podium ambitions of his teammate Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton disappointed after a generally promising weekend. Only 9^e In Q3, the Briton had set the second fastest time at the very end of Q2, and seemed to be managing the track conditions well.

“He only struggled in the last attempt at Q3. Before that he was in the mix and actually in the first attempt at Q3 he was ahead of Charles, developed Frédéric Vasseur. On the first lap he was lined up and on the second lap he made a small mistake that forced him to stay behind. But on the other hand, I think the pace was there all weekend. It's a shame he couldn't pull out all the stops on the last lap. The three sessions were quite chaotic for Lewis, for us and for everyone. Russell, for example, struggled to get through Q2 and in Q3 he found himself on the front row."

All the more disappointing, this observation confirms the difficulty the seven-time world champion is experiencing in being incisive at crucial moments in these first race weekends. With the exception of the sprint won in China, the gap with his teammate is still significant. Despite the improvements made by Ferrari to the floor of the carLewis Hamilton hasn't benefited from it. But according to his team principal, the effects aren't the most convincing this weekend.

"In Bahrain, there are a lot of medium-speed corners and few high-speed corners. There's only the section between Turns 5 and 6, but that's the only point. We'll definitely have a different picture next week in Jeddah."

While waiting for Jeddah, the management of tire management on long runs, which appears to be an unknown in light of these revelations, will nevertheless be the judge of peace for Ferrari drivers with very different ambitions on the eve of the Grand Prix.

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