Charles Leclerc has set his sights on fighting for pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver left "a bit of margin" during practice. Leclerc ended the opening day of practice just 0.087s down on Max Verstappen, as Ferrari and Red Bull built on their encouraging pre-season form to set the early pace. Reflecting on the first two sessions, Leclerc said: "Nobody's on the absolute limit of the car, but there haven't been any bad surprises today, which is a good sign. "It seems that we are in the mix more or less, which is good. "It gives us a bit of a smile, but there's still a lot of work to do for tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to fight for pole."
Leclerc's spin a result of "testing the limit"
With Leclerc's best time coming after a spin at Turn 11, which compromised his qualifying simulation, the Monegasque sees plenty of potential for Saturday. "I'm quite confident with the car and it's all about trying to test the limit today, to not do the same mistakes tomorrow," he commented. "I went for it and, at the end, we did the fast lap on the second lap, so I think there's a bit of margin still – it's not looking too bad." He added: "We've tested a lot of things, we've changed quite a bit the car, compared to where we started this morning, and all the changes that we've done made us progress." Carlos Sainz underlined Ferrari's strong start with the third-fastest time, half a second adrift of Leclerc.
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