The Scuderia's New Alliance of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Delivered at Bahrain

#F1 #Ferrari #SF21 #Bahrain #Leclerc #Sainz

$RACE

Only 5X in 17 races last year did both Ferraris finish in the points. But the Scuderia's new alliance between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz delivered at the Bahrain Grand Prix 2021 season opener, as they finished 6th and 8th respectively.

Mr. Leclerc had led the way in qualifying for the team, taking P4 on the grid, as Mr. Sainz was P8. Mr. Leclerc said that the performance of the SF21 had taken a useful step over last year’s car.

Lewis Hamilton won the season opener by 0.7s after thrilling battle with Max Verstappen in Bahrain

“It’s been a good race overall,” said Mr. Leclerc. “We were lacking a little bit of pace in general compared to Lando but otherwise it’s been quite a good race, and especially a good progress compared to last year, which is what I want to keep in mind for this race.

“It’s only a 6th place, but compared to last year, it’s a good result, so I’m really looking forward to the next races now.”

Mr. Sainz said, “It’s a completely new experience, completely new car, so I wanted to take it easy and wanted to make sure I did the whole race. Then once I got myself into clean air, honestly I was very quick, so I’m not going to complain, I’m going to take it and take it as a learning curve and keep improving.

“Definitely it will come,” Mr. Sainz added when asked if he’d up the aggression in the coming races.

“Especially because it was a conscious approach. If I was lost in Lap 1 because I don’t feel the car, then it’s something to worry about, but I’ve always been super good in the starts with the McLaren and here, I’m still wanting to get to know the car in dirty air before I started attacking like I was in the McLaren. So it was kind of a conscious approach, and I will get on top of it soon.”

https://youtu.be/QuBlV0dixMo

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix race results

Cla

Driver

Chassis

Laps

Time

Gap

1

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

56

-

2

Max Verstappen

Red Bull

56

0.745

0.745

3

Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

56

37.383

37.383

4

Lando Norris

McLaren

56

46.466

46.466

5

Sergio Perez

Red Bull

56

52.047

52.047

6

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

56

59.090

59.090

7

Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren

56

1'06.004

1'06.004

8

Carlos Sainz Jr.

Ferrari

56

1'07.100

1'07.100

9

Yuki Tsunoda

AlphaTauri

56

1'25.692

1'25.692

10

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin

56

1'26.713

1'26.713

11

Kimi Raikkonen

Alfa Romeo

56

1'28.864

1'28.864

12

Antonio Giovinazzi

Alfa Romeo

55

1 lap

13

Esteban Ocon

Alpine

55

1 lap

14

George Russell

Williams

55

1 lap

15

Sebastian Vettel

Aston Martin

55

1 lap

16

Mick Schumacher

Haas

55

1 lap

17

Pierre Gasly

AlphaTauri

52

18

Nicholas Latifi

Williams

51

Fernando Alonso

Alpine

32

Nikita Mazepin

Haas

0

Have a healthy week, Keep the Faith!