Charles Leclerc admits some satisfaction at scoring his first Formula 1 pole by beating Sebastian Vettel.
After a slightly subdued first weekend in Australia, the Monegasque has been firmly on the pace of his Ferrari teammate all weekend in Bahrain and produced a perfect qualifying to finish P1.
As has come to be expected from Leclerc, his celebrations were met with an equal dose of calm when commenting to Sky Sports’ Paul di Resta afterwards.
“Yeah, extremely happy,” he said of his emotions.
“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.”
Before the season, many were predicting Leclerc to make a big statement up against Vettel, with his performance on Saturday the clearest example of that.
“[It’s] extremely hard because Seb is an amazing driver,” he admitted. “I have learned a lot from him and I will probably learn [more]. But today I’m very happy to be in front of him so it’s a good day for me.”
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The four-time world champion was slightly compromised in Q3 as traffic in Q2 had forced him to complete an extra run, restricting him to a single fresh set of tyres.
“Of course you have to make it to the end first of all, maybe I was a bit shy in the second sector,” Vettel said on if he had had to take it easier in the top 10 shootout.
“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.”
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto also heralded the 21-year-old’s achievement.
“I’m very happy for Ferrari, for Charles as well, the first pole is important,” he said.
“He’s a good kid, and being a good kid I think we all love him but as well we love Sebastian, so I think it’s great for the team, it’s great for him, and it won’t be his last one.”
