Charles Leclerc hopes pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix will just be the start with “much more to come” from Ferrari in 2022.
At the site of his first P1 in qualifying back in 2019, the Monegasque produced a stellar final lap in Q3 to beat world champion Max Verstappen and teammate Carlos Sainz and score his 10th Formula 1 pole.
Following the trials and tribulations the Scuderia has faced in recent years, Leclerc is certainly pleased that the focus on 2022 appears to have paid off.
“It feels good,” he said in Parc Ferme. “The last few years have been incredibly difficult for the team, we were quite hopeful that this [the new car regulations] was an opportunity to be back in the front.
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“I think we have worked extremely well as a team to find ourselves again in a position to fight for better places.
“We were pretty sure that Red Bull was going to be a bit quicker than us also in qualifying, but a good surprise it wasn’t the case!
“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.”
Saturday’s qualifying was the first time teams unleashed the full potential of their new ground effect cars for this season.
What a beauty!
Good start to the weekend, time to step up for tomorrow ? pic.twitter.com/hTqlbTpeks— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) March 18, 2022
And Leclerc commented on how he has adapted to the new style to extract the maximum performance.
“From the driving point it’s completely different compared to last year,” he explained.
“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.”
As for Sunday, the Monegasque is still keeping expectations in check for race day.
“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. We need to finish the weekend on a high!”
