The Silver Arrows ended the Bahrain Grand Prix with the second 1-2 of the Formula 1 2009 season. While Bottas and Hamilton dominated in Australia, the victory in Sakhir comes with surprise, as Charles Leclerc faces engine issues, after leading the race with an outstanding pace.  

Lewis Hamilton admitted that the Ferrari’s driver deserved to win the race, pointing out how Ferrari was clearly overperforming Mercedes.

“It was extremely unfortunate for Charles,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

“This weekend, the Ferraris have been incredible,” affirmed Hamilton. “I had to see Charles. He did such a great job, he had done the job to win race. We were definitely lucky today, but we have to take it as it comes.”

The five-time world champion added how the headwind in the last sector made him struggle in the race. Despite, he remarked he was pushing hard over the whole race to get as much as he could.

“I gave it everything in the race, I pushed as hard as I could. Obviously the fight I had with Vettel was great fun for me.”

“There was a massive headwind into T4, so I braked later than usual and dived around outside. I don’t think we touched or anything like that. It’s a great result for team, considering how hard the race was,” said Hamilton.

Valterri Bottas ended 2^nd, conceding that the result was definitely lucky.

“As a team we got a bit lucky today.

“But we kept it together, did no mistakes as a team and the car was very reliable, and that is the win today”.

The Finnish driver claimed it was a difficult race due to the lack of balance of his W10.

“It was a difficult race for me. The balance was a bit everywhere”.

Charles Leclerc was clearly the fastest today. After a poor start, he recovered superbly to dominate most od the race, before an MGU-failure robbed his engine power as the closing stages of the race played out. That meant Leclerc was passed by the Hamilton and Bottas, and was about to be overtaken by Verstappen, before the safety car allowed him to get the third position in the podium.

The Ferrari, driver underlined his disappointment. Despite, he congratulated his team for the fast recovery after the poor performance shown in Australia.

"Of course I am extremely disappointed, like the whole team, but it happens during the season.

“As I have said a lot in the past, I am never looking at the result, I am looking at the potential to do better.

"Unfortunately today was not our day but I am confident the team has done an amazing job to recover the lack of pace of Australia”, said Leclerc.

Nevertheless, Leclerc became the sixth youngest driver to score a podium and the 50^th driver to lead a Grand Prix driving a Ferrari.