Leclerc hits out at Ferrari strategy AGAIN after Bahrain defeat

Charles Leclerc has once again questioned Ferrari's strategic decision-making after an unorthodox tyre choice saw him just fail to pip Max Verstappen for pole at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Leclerc actually set the fastest lap of the whole session in Q2, but his team made a tyre call out of sync with the rest of the grid at the start of Q3 - which he says may have prevented him from starting Saturday's race from the first spot on the grid.

The Ferrari star was able to be competitive over a single lap for parts of Verstappen's dominant 2023 season, but was always overhauled easily in the race. That has led to some off-season soul searching, both for himself and his team as they look to improve their car's race pace.

READ MORE: Charles Leclerc F1 pole positions: Woeful win record starting first

Bahrain race to yield unexpected result?

Part of the reason for Leclerc's poor qualifying-to-race result record in 2023 was down to poor strategy decisions from Ferrari, an issue that was even more prominent during the 2022 season.

In this first qualifying session of the year, the team decided to send their star man out on a set of used tyres in Q3, before getting a fresh shiny set for a second bite at the cherry.

Leclerc believes that this led to a loss of momentum in the fight against Verstappen.

"I'm disappointed, but it's a good qualifying. We are in a better place than last year," the Monegasque driver said after qualifying.

"Pole was there in the car, I think we lost the rhythm with the used set in Q3. I'm confident we did a step forward in race pace, but we have to wait until tomorrow."

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok took to X to explain to fans that the fight between Red Bull and Ferrari - in qualifying at least - may be a lot closer than it seems, despite Verstappen claiming pole by two tenths of a second.

Very interesting Quali - sadly we didn’t see the best from Leclerc in Q3.

His Q2 time would have been good enough for pole - one hundredth ahead of Max so it’s definitely closer than everyone expected.

— Karun Chandhok (@karunchandhok) March 1, 2024

READ MORE: Wolff hints at driver to help deal with Hamilton 'curveball'

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