The Gentleman Magazine Issue 14 | April 2019 | Page 34

FERRARI’S BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow leaves Bahrain with a
feeling of regret after the second round of the Formula 1
World Championship, thinking about what might have been.
All weekend long, the SF90 clearly demonstrated it had the
potential to win, having rediscovered the competitive pace
it had lost in Australia. However, in the end, it had to settle
for a third place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and a fifth with
Sebastian Vettel.
Sebastian got the better of his team-mate at the start to lead at
the first corner. Charles found himself in third behind Valtteri
Bottas in the Mercedes, but on the second lap, the Monegasque
driver got past the Finn and closed on his team-mate. Charles
had a better pace and passed Sebastian on lap 5 to take the lead.
On lap 13, Charles came in for his first pit stop, switching from
the Soft to the Medium tyres, as did Sebastian on the following
lap, the German rejoining behind Hamilton in the Mercedes
who had stopped one lap earlier. The German took eight laps
to attack and overtake his rival at Turn 4.
On lap 35, Sebastian made his second stop, once again duelling
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with the Englishman. The German ended up spinning and
flatspotted his tyres which resulted in the front wing coming
off due to the strong vibrations. He then had to pit again for
a new one. Charles also came in again, on lap 36, but kept the
lead setting the fastest lap with 1’33″411.
After his unscheduled stop, Sebastian rejoined ninth and
charged up the order, passing Kimi Raikkonen then Lando
Norris, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg, to claim fifth
place.
With 15 laps remaining, Charles’ car suffered a power unit
problem which meant his pace slowed dramatically, The two
Mercedes thus managed to pass him, but with two laps to go,
the Safety Car came out to deal with two cars stopping on track
at the same time, which froze the positions, so that Leclerc was
at least able to enjoy the satisfaction of his first ever F1 podium
finish. He thus equals Louis Chiron, the only other driver from
Monaco to have made it to a Formula 1 podium, which he did
in his home race in 1950, the race in which Scuderia Ferrari
first took part in the World Championship.
, Security in Motion”