Leclerc: I don’t think we have performance for pole

Charles Leclerc finished FP1 and FP2 in Bahrain fifth and fourth fastest respectively, as Fernando Alonso stole the spotlight with Aston Martin's impressive showing.

While Ferrari have most probably kept their powder dry on Friday, Leclerc insists the SF-23 is not yet a pole position car, and needs more work.

Speaking after practice, Leclerc was quote by F1's Official Website saying: "On my side in testing, it’s been very, very inconsistent in the way we run the car, because we were testing loads of things, so I didn’t have much time to put the car to my liking, which I did today, and I think that went really well.

"On the other hand, it seems that – again what we thought was confirmed – Red Bull seemed quite a bit ahead compared to everyone," he pointed out.

"Aston seems very strong too. But let’s wait and see. For now, we need to focus on ourselves, try to gain a little bit of performance overnight and hopefully have a great qualifying tomorrow."

Leclerc is hoping Red Bull's and Aston Martin's pace was track specific and said when asked about the topic: "I hope so! I don’t know.

"It’s still early days. I maybe think that Aston is a bit quicker [today] than what they will be tomorrow, but again, let’s wait and see.

"I don’t think we have the performance maybe for pole, but we can be in the mix. Whenever we have races that are a bit more difficult, we should be here and try and take every opportunity, so that’s what we’ll try to do this weekend," the 2022 F1 runner up insisted.

Friday wasn't a better affair for Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz who was 14th fastest in FP2, and dead last in FP1, while having a huge spin in the first practice session.

Sainz spoke of his FP1 spin; he said: "We were just testing some things in the car, trying to finalise a few things that we wanted to try in FP1, scrubbing the medium tyres which we wanted to get rid of in FP1.

"It didn’t go to plan, clearly it wasn’t intentional, but it was a test that went wrong and we came back for FP2. I lost a bit of track time, lost a bit of rhythm, and probably paid the price in FP2.

"Still the car doesn’t feel the same as it did in testing, so we’re putting an eye into what it could be. The track conditions have changed a bit. We’ll have a good look overnight and try to put it together tomorrow," the Spaniard explained.

Sainz also thinks Aston Martin are a force to be reckoned with this weekend; he commented: "I think we all said that we expect them to be in the fight. I’m not sure if they have enough to beat the Red Bull – who knows? But they definitely seem [to be] in the fight.

"I hope, still, that focusing on ourselves we can do a step tomorrow and get ourselves back up there," he added. "If the car feels like it did in testing, and I manage to put a good lap together… obviously the field looks very tight, and it’s impossible to predict, but [it can] definitely [be] better than today."

Ferrari took a one/two at last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc converting pole to victory while Sainz followed him across the line having started from third.