Charles Leclerc pranked his Ferrari pit wall in the final moments before his race win in the Bahrain Grand Prix - by joking that he had an engine issue.
The Monegasque’s victory to open the 2022 Formula One season came from pole position, which he also held at the same track in 2019 before reliability issues dramatically cost him the win.
On Sunday, it was rival Max Verstappen who dropped out of the race late on with a suspected fuel issue striking down the reigning world champion and his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez.
That allowed Leclerc to cruise home to a Ferrari one-two, ahead of Carlos Sainz, and the 24-year-old even found time to prank his engineers.
“I did a bit of a joke on the radio during the last lap, saying there was something strange on the engine,” he revealed on Sky Sports.
“The engineers I’m pretty sure didn’t like that but it was fun - I had that in mind for the last 10 or 15 laps in the race, hoping I had no reliability issues.
“Then I saw Max had had an issue and I was like, ‘Come on please, stay with me until the end’ and [the car] did so it’s great.”
The victory announces Ferrari and Leclerc as serious championship contenders in 2022, and the driver was pleased to enjoy a relatively comfortable ride to the finish.
“A victory is always very very special and I definitely feel much grown as a driver since my victory in 2019,” he added.
“At Monza it was incredible but here today everything felt a bit more under control and it felt nice.
“Obviously there were some very tense moments with Max, after the first stop and with the safety car restart after that, but everything was managed well and I could bring the victory home.”
