Binotto impressed with Leclerc maturity after Bahrain heartbreak

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has praised Charles Leclerc's maturity after the Monegasque driver was cruelly denied his first Formula 1 win in Bahrain due to a late-race issue on his car.

Leclerc ended the Bahrain Grand Prix third after dominating proceedings up to that point, shading his four-time champion teammate Sebastian Vettel in the process.

Although he was denied race victory, Binotto said his reaction and positivity in the face of such a difficult situation had impressed the team massively.

"Losing was tough but even more probably frustrating but giving us even more boost for the following races and for here in China," Binotto explained.

"To Charles, what I told him, I think he did a great race, he did a great quali a great race but more than that, I think he has been fantastic on the post-race comments, showing that he's really a mature driver.

"So, simply telling him good job but we're more happy with what you did after the race and during the entire weekend. And that's enough. Because then I think all of us are simply looking ahead at the next challenge."

The Ferrari boss also denied any issue Leclerc faced in Bahrain had stuck around for the Chinese Grand Prix, explaining that the team hadn't had a reoccurrence of the issue during the post-race tests.

"No, not during the testing, so that's a problem that occurs only once during the race. Never at the bench, never during testing, never in practices.

"10 laps or 12 laps to the end of the race, whatever it was. I think on reliability, you need to be strong, on quality, you need to be strong, but it may always happen and I think it was really unlucky the way it happened.

"We changed all our units here in China for precaution, even on the other car, so even on Seb's."