Ferrari dreams of returning to its glory days and Leclerc will start from pole in the first Formula 1 GP: time and TV

Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) will start first this Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix held at the Sakhir circuit and which opens the Formula 1 World Championship, where this Saturday he was the best in the qualifying session, just six thousandths behind the last world champion, in Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), on a sensational day for Ferrari, the most successful team in the history of F1.

Leclerc, 24, achieved his tenth pole since racing in F1 by covering the 5,412 meters of the track in one minute, 30 seconds and 558 thousandths, 123 less than Mad Max, who will finish second. Carlos Sainz will start from the second row, next to the other Red Bull, that of Mexican Sergio Pérez.

“The car feels good and that is good, although the last two years have been difficult for the team,” Leclerc explained this Saturday at the circuit outside Manama, the capital of Bahrain.

In Sakhir, the circuit on the outskirts of the capital of the kingdom of the Arabian archipelago, it was also found that Mercedes was not bluffing and had real problems. The sevenfold world champion, Lewis Hamilton, did not go beyond fifth place (to almost seven tenths) and will start from the third row, alongside his teammate last years, Finnish Valtteri Bottas, who surely could not imagine such a good debut with Alfa Romeo.

In the first round of the qualifying, in which the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and the German Nico Hülkenberg, substitute in Aston Martin for his compatriot Sebastian Vettel -positive for covid-positive- were eliminated, the red single-seaters already warned, with the best partial of Leclerc and the second of their Spanish teammate.

In Q2, in which the McLaren of England's Lando Norris fell, and Zhou Guanyu's Alfa Romeo - the first official Chinese driver in the 73-year history of F1 - gave the spotlight again to Verstappen, with Sainz second, only three hundredths, and the rider from the principality of the Côte d'Azur third.

Finally, Leclerc flew on his last attempt and Sainz was left nothing behind the captain of Red Bull, on a sensational day for Ferrari; engine that also powers the Haas of the freshly refished Magnussen, indirectly benefited by the delusions of the occasional Russian president. Two weeks ago, the Dane was at home. This Sunday will start seventh in the first round of the F1 World Cup.

TIME: 15:00 GMT (12:00 ARG-URU-CHI/11:00 PAR-VEN-BOL/10:00 COL-PER-ECU-MEX)

TV: Fox Sports / Star+

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