Mercedes celebrated a second successive one-two after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc suffered the pain and lost on the victory at the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has responded to the challenge of Leclerc from the thrilling race in Bahrain, stating that he will treat the young Ferrari upstart ‘with caution’ until he is more accustomed to his racing style, particularly when going wheel-to-wheel.
Nevertheless, the Little Prince has made his mark in the spotlight of the Sakhir circuit, to the point of saying the five-time world champion Formula 1 that all the drivers of the plateau should “be afraid” of Leclerc.
“These are times that Charles will learn to face. He knows he has done an outstanding job. The first thing to do is to be able to realize that you have done the maximum. The second part is a learning exercise in which we all go through different forms.” Hamilton said.
“What happened Charles is not bad, know it. People can see that as a defeat but it has grown today. He will come back stronger when he is already very strong. We should all be afraid of it,” Hamilton added.
Despite a power failure with ten laps remaining which cost him victory, Leclerc was the undoubted winner of the weekend, recording pole on Saturday.
Charles Leclerc’s Bahrain GP engine problem explained. (Source:www.dailyexpress.co.uk)
“I’ve not had any time on track with him to assess him. He looks like a very, very stable, fair and balanced driver as far as I can tell. But through the season you’ll see.” Hamilton said.
“I approach it currently the same as I approach Sebastian. At the moment I’ve not had a wheel-to-wheel battle with him [Leclerc]. But I will discover that at some stage, I’m sure. Hopefully we will get some wheel-to-wheel battles through the year.” he added.
The 21-year-old driver was able to secure the final podium spot ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in fourth and his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel who was fifth.
“It happens. Unfortunately, today was not our day. But I am extremely confident. The team have done [an] amazing job. We have been lucky on an unlucky day with the safety car. Very hard to take but we will come back stronger.” Leclerc said.
