Leclerc made last-lap prank on Ferrari engineers in Bahrain

On the penultimate lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc confessed that he gave his engineers a heart attack.

After successfully holding off a massive push from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen before the defending World Champion’s late technical troubles, Charles Leclerc brought back Ferrari to the Formula One winner’s circle on Sunday in Bahrain.

Following Verstappen’s difficulties, Leclerc led home a Ferrari 1-2, with Carlos Sainz inheriting second. The Monegasque driver later admitted that he chose to perform a joke on his squad in the dying seconds of the race.

After being denied his first Ferrari triumph at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix due to a late engine failure, Leclerc stated he recalled that day by talking to his engineer on the radio.

“I did a bit of a joke on the radio on the last lap, saying that there was something strange with the engine,” he told media, including RacingNews365.com, after the race.

“That gave a heart attack to some of the engineers, I’m sure, but everything was fine! [I’m] very happy that this time we brought it home.”

Why didn’t Leclerc cover Verstappen’s final stop?

Until the Safety Car intervention, it appeared that the race’s final stages may have produced a thriller, as Red Bull chose to stop Verstappen for a third time – a tyre change that Ferrari did not emulate.

When questioned why Ferrari didn’t cover off the pit stop to ensure that no strategic element would be their downfall, Leclerc responded he trusted the team’s decision.

“I felt quite nice at that point with my tyres, to go to the end, but obviously when I saw that they [Red Bull] would pit, I was a bit concerned,” he commented.

“That’s why I made my thoughts clear to the team, that maybe it will have been good to just cover him and stay in front, and have our race like this, a bit on the safer side, but after they told me that we had to stay out, I just agreed.

“They have so much more data than I do in the car. If they were confident to do so, it gave me the confidence to also just get on with my work, and bring the car home at the end.

“I just wanted to make sure that they questioned all the scenarios before we took a decision.”

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