Charles Leclerc: third place in qualifying not expected, but setup SF-25 progress is paying off | Sakhir GP. Charles Leclerc secures a surprising P3 in Bahrain qualifying.

Third place is undoubtedly a positive outcome based on what Ferrari’s expectations could have been in Bahrain, after what was seen on Friday, although some aspects still left reason for concern. On one hand, clearly, Lewis Hamilton’s ninth place left a bitter taste, but another key point was the gap recorded both from McLaren — around three-tenths — and from Mercedes.

While the gap to the MCL39 was not surprising and aligned with expectations, the one to the W16 raised more questions, even if already on Friday Mercedes had shown strong form, needing only to refine a few imperfections and details in the second sector.

Whereas yesterday the Ferrari lost time in the third sector, where it suffered from tyre overheating, today the main deficit was seen in the first sector — possibly due to a slightly more conservative approach at the start of the lap, aimed at not putting excessive stress on the tyres.

A large portion of the gap was indeed accumulated right after Turn 1, when the drivers went back on the throttle while approaching Turn 2, where the rear tyres tended to spin and overheat the surface layer of the compound. It was no surprise, for instance, that Charles Leclerc was the last driver to fully open the throttle coming out of Turn 2, and the disadvantage accumulated during that acceleration phase was then carried through to the braking point at Turn 4.

The rest of the lap was more in line with George Russell’s sector times, who in fact only gained a few thousandths in the other two sectors. However, the time lost in the first sector probably represented a “necessary compromise” to remain competitive over the rest of the lap, given that yesterday Ferrari had appeared more comfortable in the opening phase before suffering tyre overheating later.

The positive aspect was especially managing to stay ahead of Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, with the Italian still learning how to best exploit the soft compound. That, in any case, secured third place for the SF-25 — a position from which to try and build a solid race. It should be noted that, realistically, third place wasn’t a complete surprise, but it was important to make the most of others’ mistakes.

Charles Leclerc explained that he honestly had not expected to finish third. He said he knew that in Q1 and Q2 they had left some time in their pocket, waiting for the track to come toward them in Q3, even though the start of Q3 was very difficult because he felt no grip on the used tyres. In fact, over the radio at the end of his first Q3 attempt, he had reported a complete lack of grip.

However, he noted that this is a track that improves constantly, and where fresh tyres can make a difference by offering more grip. He said that once he put on the new tyres, things went much better. The Monegasque was happy, though he hadn’t expected it. He believed the result came from the fact that they had explored extreme setups during the previous weekend, and it seemed he had managed to find his way a bit. Step by step, he hoped to extract more performance from the car in the coming weekends.

Charles Leclerc also underlined the importance of the new updates which, although only representing a small step compared to the overall lack of downforce in the car, still gave their contribution. He hoped they might make a bigger difference next week in Jeddah — a track filled with medium-to-high speed corners and, above all, a very smooth surface where the car can be run lower.

The Ferrari man explained that the Maranello team had pushed to bring the updates to Bahrain. He didn’t think this was the best track to exploit them, but it was always a positive thing. These were small improvements, not a huge step forward. The Monegasque driver hoped that next week might bring a more significant step, but said that if today they were in third place — especially considering how small the gaps were behind — it meant the updates were working.