Sebastian Vettel believes it would have been “very difficult” to deny Ferrari Formula 1 teammate Charles Leclerc pole position in Bahrain e▨ven with an ideal lap in Saturday’s qualifying session.

Leclerc charged to his first F1 po🦩le after topping all thre💙e stages of qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit, heading up a front row lock-out for Ferrari.

Vettel could only 🌺qualify two-tenths of a second behind his teammate in P2, having lost one of his shots at pole after being forced into using an extra set of tyres earlier in Q2.

But Vettel doubted he could have beaten Leclerc’s pole time – a new lap record in Bahr♋ain – even if he had strung together his final🏅 effort in Q3.

“It’s his da🃏y at the end of the day,” Vettel said. “Certainly my day was not ideal, but even wi෴th an ideal lap would be very difficult to beat him today, so well done.

“My first pole was a while ago! But certainly it’s a day that you ꦬnever forget.”

Ferrari’s front row lock-out came just two weeks after the team had finished almost a m🌞inute behind Merc🦋edes at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, marking a rapid change in fortunes.

Vettel heaped pr🦂aise on the Ferrari crew members for their efforts in getting to the bottom of the issues that left them off the pace in Australia, with the qualifying result continuing the team’s clean sweep of one-two finishes through the Bahrain weekend.

“We are both much happier with𒈔 the car this weekend. I think the cred♉it really goes to the team, because it’s a team effort,” Vettel said.

“Both of us, we didn’t feel very happy with the car in Melbourne, and the team has done ve✨ry hard work trying to under🗹stand why.

“I think we had some answers coming here, obviously proving today we are capable of🅷 running at the front and fighting for po𓄧le.

“Locking ou🦹t the front row for Ferrari is a great testament to their work.”