Bahrain Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel watch Ferrari hopes go up in flames
Leclerc saw a certain victory ripped from his grasp and handed to Lewis Hamilton while Vettel span out of yet another head-to-head duel before a scary front-wing failure
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Your support makes all the difference.Ferrari were left to pick out the pieces of a huge opportunity missed as they watched their own one-two finish in Bahrain disintegrate before them into a victory for Lewis Hamilton and second place for his teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Charles Leclerc, who at 21 years and 166 days old became the second-youngest driver to start a Grand Prix on pole position, was cruising to victory with more than eight seconds between him and the next man.
But Lady Luck was not with the Monegasque as his Ferrari engine dropped the turbo responsible for the energy recovery system, resulting in Leclerc losing the best part of 40kph in each straight. Effectively, he was attempting to keep the rest of the field at bay with three wheels on his wagon.
When Leclarc’s car failed, Sebastian Vettel should have been there to pick up the pieces. But not for the first time in his career, the four-time world champion cracked under the pressure being applied by Hamilton, whose sweeping overtake around the outside of Turn 4 saw Vettel hit the accelerator too early, catch the gusting wind at the wrong time and end up facing the wrong way.
To compound matters, Vettel had damaged his tyres enough for the front wing to shake itself free and get dragged under his car to launch the Ferrari into the air and inflict further damage, and it was the perfect way to sum up the Scuderia’s day: when it rains, it pours.
"The wind probably didn't help,” Vettel said after the race. “Maybe the fact that Hamilton was ahead, I don't know. I lost the car very suddenly once I spun and it was too late and we had too much damage with the tyres to cause the front wing to fail.
"It's difficult, we all struggled at various points and I really struggled at the beginning maybe on the medium tyre. But overall it wasn't the race I wanted to have, then on top I had a mistake with the spin so not a good evening.
"It's a disappointing day, starting at the front and not finishing there is not what we wanted."
If Vettel was disappointed, Leclerc was distraught. A late safety car – caused in the most extraordinary circumstances as the Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo both failed on the same lap within around 200 yards of each other – kept Leclerc safe from further attack as the race finished under yellows. By that time, Hamilton and Bottas has already passed him, though has the race remained a competitive affair to the very end, Max Verstappen would undoubtedly have been standing on the rostrum in his place.
As it was, Leclerc was still able to secure his first podium finish, but it did little to console him in the immediate aftermath of the near-miss.
"Of course I'm extremely disappointed," said Leclerc, who nursed his Ferrari home for the final 11 laps. "It's a very hard one to take.
"It happens and it is part of motorsport. Unfortunately today was not our day.
"I am extremely disappointed. We have been lucky because the safety car came out at the end, but it is hard to take. I am sure we will come back stronger."
At least for Leclerc there were consoling words waiting for him from Lewis Hamilton. The Grand Prix winner, who notched his 74th victory of his career to put him 17 behind Michael Schumacher’s all-time record, immediately sought out Leclerc to embrace him, and when the two met again in the drivers’ room, Hamilton added: "You drove a fantastic weekend, you're going to have a great career and many wins. You should be proud.”
These words are not common from Hamilton, whose win-or-bust outlook on racing has seen him swat all rivals aside throughout the hybrid era. "That was extremely unfortunate for Charles, he drove such a great race,” he added in the knowledge that he should not have been standing on the top step of the podium.
"I had to go and see Charles because he did such a great job," said Hamilton. "I'm sure it was a devastating result for him because he'd done the job to win. We were lucky. This guy has a lot of race wins coming in the future.
“He deserved the victory. He did the job all the weekend. I expected him to be great and do a great job. But who would have known he would be so quick so early on."
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