F1 Bahrain, Charles Leclerc fourth in FP2
The second free practice session in Bahrain is in the books, confirming McLaren’s clear superiority, having put half a second on the entire field. It’s a gap that rightfully worries the rivals, Ferrari above all. Team principal Frederic Vasseur, while noting that five tenths is a lot, admitted the gap is 2-3 tenths (still a significant margin to recover). Charles Leclerc, referring to McLaren, says they’re “on another planet,” but the Monegasque isn’t giving up and believes more potential can be extracted from the updates Ferrari brought this weekend.
Charles Leclerc, who didn’t run in FP1 to make room for Dino Beganovic, was immediately faster than Lewis Hamilton in FP2, putting half a second between them. Here are his thoughts right after the session.
Charles Leclerc’s words
“I’m trying to push in a direction that allows me to get the most out of the car based on my driving style. Honestly though, the car’s potential remains the same and we’re not fast enough. McLaren is simply on another planet—it’s frustrating, but that’s how it is. It motivates me to close the gap as soon as possible, but they’re incredibly fast. Overnight we need to work to improve the situation. The updates gave us what we expected, but unfortunately the gap to McLaren is still too big. We have to maximize the car’s potential for now—whether that means fourth or fifth place, I don’t know, but we have to do it. I hope that at some point we’ll once again be the fastest car on track, so that by maximizing performance we’ll be fighting for victory and not just third place,” Charles Leclerc commented.
“We’re more or less there with Mercedes, while I think Red Bull is a bit ahead with Max Verstappen, but let’s wait and see,” he added. “We need to focus on maximizing the potential of our car. I think we can still find some performance before qualifying and we’ll do everything we can to make the most of the update we brought. Let’s see where this work takes us tomorrow.”
