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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Daniel Moxon

Charles Leclerc mood at "zero" as he admits Red Bull are "in a different category"

Charles Leclerc was a very unhappy man as he reacted to his failure to finish the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Ferrari were never going to be able to compete with Red Bull today – no-one could. Max Verstappen started on pole, got a good launch and never looked back as he raced off into the sunset, winning the race comfortably.

Sergio Perez crossed the line second but was some way behind his team-mate. That said, he was miles away from anyone else with Fernando Alonso finishing third, after getting the better of fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz in the late stages of the race.

But for a long time, it looked as though that final podium spot would belong to Leclerc. He had been running in third for much of the race but, with just 17 laps to go, he was forced to pull over at the side of the track after suffering an engine failure.

His groan over team radio as he did so told the full story. Leclerc wanted above anything else a trouble-free first race of the year, but a problem out of his hands scuppered that and he was still clearly quite upset as he faced the media after the race.

Asked if he had any warning of the impending engine issues, he said: "No, I didn't." And when given a scale of one to 10 from which to choose what his mood was like, he replied: "Zero."

Charles Leclerc pulled over on the side of the track (Sky Sports)

He added: "It shut down completely, and I couldn't do anything after that. I cannot say it feels good. Obviously there was quite a lot of work on that. We need to keep working because first race and first reliability problem, not good."

Even without that DNF, he knew the Red Bulls were just too quick. "We were even one second per lap behind sometimes. They [Red Bull] are in a different category so we have to work, find something because that way we will struggle."

His loss was Alonso's gain. The Spaniard made light work of getting past the other Ferrari as Aston Martin made it clear they had arrived in Bahrain with the second quickest car on the grid at the start of this new season.

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