Charles Leclerc emerged from Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix relieved with fourth place after a race in which virtually everything that could go wrong for the Ferrari driver did go wrong in the opening stages.
The Monegasque went from a compromised start on slick tyres to the back of the field, suffered contact with Nico Hulkenberg, picked up a puncture and damaged his front wing which led to a lengthy pit stop left him dead last.
Yet Leclerc somehow clawed his way back to fourth, salvaging a result that, given the circumstances, offered Ferrari some much-needed relief after a messy afternoon in Sepang.
From disaster to damage limitation
Ferrari had committed both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to soft tyres for the wet-dry start, only to discover that the track was nowhere near ready for slicks. As drivers on intermediates swept past, Ferrari was forced to concede the gamble had failed.
Leclerc’s problems then multiplied. His contact with Hulkenberg compounded the tyre issue, while the front-wing damage necessitated additional work during his pit stop. By the time he rejoined, he was running last.
Against that backdrop, fourth place looked like an unlikely recovery.
“I’m not sure how much more we could have done in terms of position with a completely smooth race to be honest," Leclerc explained after the race.
"Everything that could have gone wrong in the first half of the race did go wrong, everything that could have gone right though in the second part of the race went right for us.
“At the end of the day, I think P4 on my side was the best I could do. I didn’t have a good feeling with the car, had quite a lot of inconsistencies and just struggled to use the maximum potential of the car and then obviously the first part of the race was very, very tricky with the slick tyres first, and then with the puncture and the broken front wing.
“And then just trying to save what we could save, and P4 at the end of the day is a good result considering the first part of the race.”
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Leclerc’s recovery was matched by Hamilton, who climbed from 17th to the podium after suffering the same disastrous opening tyre gamble.
Their combined efforts helped Ferrari extend its advantage over McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship while also making modest progress toward Mercedes.
But the recovery pace also highlighted an uncomfortable truth: Ferrari had a car capable of fighting its way forward, only to make life unnecessarily difficult for itself with its early decisions.
Leclerc happy to 'stop the silly rumors'
For Leclerc, the result also carried significance beyond the points. Ferrari arrived in Malaysia surrounded by speculation over team principal Fred Vasseur’s future, with recent headlines questioning whether the Frenchman remained secure at the Scuderia.
Leclerc made it clear that the noise had not gone unnoticed – and that he wanted the team’s recovery to provide its own answer.
“Relatively happy that we have done I think the best we could do at a weekend like this. But if we look back at the race, I think it is one of those races where the end result is maybe the maximum we could have done,” he said.
“As a team there are plenty of things we need to learn from and do better next time we find ourselves in these conditions. But anyway, I’m happy we have a good race here and hopefully that stops a little bit the silly rumours that there are on the team.
“Fred is doing absolutely everything in order to bring back the team to the top, and we are all doing that, and to see all of these headlines in the last few days haven’t been nice at all,” he insisted.
“We are very united, that is the most important and I just hope we are back on the top step of the podium as soon as possible.”
Leclerc’s fourth place may not have delivered the podium Ferrari wanted, but after everything that happened before the race had even settled, he was hardly going to complain.
For Ferrari, however, the result should not obscure the lesson. The car had enough in reserve to recover from the bottom of the field. The bigger question is why it needed to.
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