Charles Leclerc played cheeky prank on Ferrari before winning F1’s Bahrain GP

Leclerc secured his third career victory with an excellent performance in Bahrain

Charles Leclerc (left) kicked off the new Formula 1 season with victory in Bahrain (Getty Images)

Charles Leclerc has revealed that he played a prank on Ferrari’s engineers as he rounded the final few bends to take victory at the 2022 Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Leclerc ensured that Ferrari’s preseason promise carried over as racing began at the Sakhir Circuit, surviving the challenge of Max Verstappen in an early duel and then holding his nerve and speed to secure the win.

It was the Monegasque’s third victory in F1, but his first since 2019, and suggested that his Italian team may well be able to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull.

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For the 24-year-old, it represented something of a righted wrong after missing out on what would have been a maiden Grand Prix win at the Bahrain track three years ago.

Leclerc had qualified on pole and led throughout the race but late engine trouble caused him to be passed by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas - a memory that the Ferrari driver was able to poke fun at as he put the finishing touches on his

“I did a bit of a joke on the radio on the last lap, saying there was something strange with the engine,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.

“And 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 of the race, hoping there were no reliability issues.

“And obviously then I see Max [Verstappen] had the issue, I was like ‘come on, please stay with me until the end’ and it did, so it’s great.”

Carlos Sainz followed Leclerc home to seal a first Ferrari one-two since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ two drivers were the closest challengers come the close of the race, with Lewis Hamilton beating new teammate George Russell to the final podium place.

With Verstappen failing to finish, Hamilton was encouraged by the performance of his team’s new car, which had been troubled in preseason after the offseason overhaul of F1’s regulations, describing his third-placed finish as “remarkable.

“Oh, for sure, we would not have expected [to get a podium],” said Hamilton.

“I woke up this morning hoping, super, super hoping that we would have a chance to fight, that we would have a car that’s better than we think. But we did struggle in the race.

“But George did a great job to get us third and fourth [which] I think is pretty remarkable given the problems that we have.”

The 2022 season continues in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this weekend.