LE SCAN SPORT – The Monegasque allowed himself a little joke before crossing the finish line of the first grand prix of the season.
“Red Madness”. Like the front page of The Gazzetta Dello Sport One of the highlights of the weekend was Ferrari’s sensational debut in Bahrain on Sunday on Monday. By placing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the highest steps of the podium, the Scuderia confirmed the great promises seen during winter testing. The Prancing Horse, which had not won for two and a half years, is back.
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On Sunday, on the Sakhir track, Leclerc was able to contain Verstappen’s attacks and take full advantage of the performance of his F1-75. A well-bred single-seater, equipped with a particularly robust and vigorous engine, which did not experience the slightest failure unlike the Red Bulls, which were forced to retire at the very end of the race. In the last lap, a mischievous Charles Leclerc even allowed himself to prank his team. “There’s something wrong with the engine“Launched the Monegasque on the radio. A remark followed by a long, icy silence, the time for his team to check the data from the single-seater live.
«It is not possible“, then replied his engineer in a response punctuated by a small relieved laugh. “I’m joking“, reassured Leclerc, proud of his shot. In 2019, the Scuderia prodigy used the same formula – “There’s something wrong with the engine, p…” – to point out the loss of power, real this time, of his engine which had deprived him of a first victory with Ferrari on this same track in Bahrain.
«I made a little joke on the radio on the last lap that there was something wrong with the enginetold the interested party to Sky Sports after his victory. The engineers, I’m sure, didn’t like it. But it was fun. I had that in mind for the last 10 or 15 laps of the race, hoping there was no reliability issue“. The shot was perfect.
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