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F1 news: Ferrari’s Leclerc wins championship for Bahrain GP

SAKHIR, Bahrain –

When Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stunned Formula One champion Max Verstappen by taking Saturday’s excellent pole position for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton overcame a bad situation. worst for Mercedes by qualifying in fifth place.

Verstappen led Leclerc by 0.015 seconds in the final division but the Red Bull star lost his time to the finish 0.123 seconds as his teenage kart rival clinched 10th pole position in his career.

“It’s just a little bit of hit and miss to get the balance back together,” Verstappen said. “Suddenly, I lost a tenth (second) on a corner. But it’s the first race of the season and we’re competitive.”

It was also the track where 24-year-old Leclerc from Monaco won his first pole, in his first season with Ferrari in 2019, earning him a phone call from a friend of the Prince. Albert of Monaco.

“It feels great. The last two years have been difficult for the team,” Leclerc said. “We were pretty hopeful this was an opportunity to get back up front.”

Hamilton made up the score for Mercedes in his final run but never looked to secure the record-spanning 104th pillar and disappointing fifth place start.

“Those who were ahead of us are on another level at the moment,” Hamilton said. “We weren’t fast enough to win, but I’ve told you that before.”

He starts behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jr. of Ferrari in third place.

Hamilton said: “I hope we’ll take one more step next week and little by little we’re going to hunt down those guys.

Hamilton’s former team-mate Valtteri Bottas gave Mercedes a miserable day by finishing sixth for his new team Alfa Romeo, while his replacement George Russell finished ninth after losing. one second in the last run.

“Today is not ideal for me,” Russell said.

Mercedes looks like a heavier car and seems to be struggling when other cars improve unexpectedly.

“We’re trying absolutely everything at the moment to solve our global problems with the car,” Russell said.

Haas has a Ferrari engine and looks good, with Kevin Magnussen being re-hired suggesting it might have been a mistake to fire him in 2020. The Danish driver started seventh in the race. His return to racing after replacing Russian driver Nikita Mazepin.

“I am speechless,” Magnussen said. “It’s good to worry about how this is really qualitative, and then find out how good it is.”

Ferrari established a lead time in the final part of qualifying, known as Q3, with Mercedes lagging about 1.5 seconds behind the Ferraris. But things did not go well for Mercedes in Q1 with Russell 9th ​​and Hamilton 10th.

It’s even worse for McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who has won eight races in his career.

The experienced Australian won the team’s only race last season but failed to even make it to the second part of the so-called Q2 qualifiers. He started in a dismal 18th place. while teammate Lando Norris, who was on the podium four times last year, didn’t go further in 13th.

McLaren is struggling to adapt the car with one of its main problems being “porpoising” – an F1 term in which aerodynamic problems cause the car to leap over the track.

Verstappen leads Q2 from Sainz Jr. and Leclerc as Mercedes once again trails the top drivers.

“It’s a good start to a new era,” Verstappen said. “It was a really close battle for Carlos and Charles.”

Before that, Verstappen narrowly led the third and final training session ahead of Leclerc and Perez.

Verstappen posted the fastest time in all of pre-season testing and led practice second ahead of the Ferraris, also second and third in first practice.

After two practice runs on Friday, Hamilton scrapped the win despite being the F1 record holder with 103 GP wins.

Hamilton has won races where he started from a far lower fifth, but there are doubts that his car can match his steering this time.

For Ferrari, the upward curve continues.

A horrifying 2020 campaign has left Scuderia Ferrari’s Tifosi fans in tears and the team in tatters. Last year was steady with a handful of podiums but no wins.

“We have worked extremely well as a team to find ourselves in a position to fight for better positions,” Leclerc said. “From a driving point of view, it’s completely different from last year, I tried many different driving styles. There’s more to come from us.”

Ferrari’s last F1 title was Kimi Raikkonen’s in 2007.

Perhaps this could be the first real scramble since 2017, when four-time champion Sebastian Vettel led the title halfway but languished under pressure from Hamilton, as he did. in 2018.

Leclerc beat Vettel 2-1 to win in 2019 and even led Hamilton in most F1 columns with a score of 7-5 to show his pace.

He will win his third race on Sunday, with Verstappen right behind him and chasing a 21st win.

On this track three years ago, Leclerc looked prepared for his first F1 win until a late engine failure sent him into third while Hamilton took the win.

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