Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves Bahrain with 22 points in the bag courtesy of a fourth place finish for Charles Leclerc and a fifth for Lewis Hamilton.

There is also the awareness that progress has been made compared to the first three races of the season. In what was the most exciting of the four races run so far this year, Charles was in the hunt for a podium finish right up to the closing stages, fighting with Lando Norris. There is inevitably some disappointment that the arrival of the Safety Car at two thirds distance certainly didn't do him any favours. As for Lewis, he staged a great climb up the order, driving an attacking race for most of the 57 laps, pulling off some spectacular overtaking moves.

The team decided to start both drivers on new Medium tyres, unlike those around them that had all gone for used Softs. Starting from second, Charles paid the price for this, losing places to George Russell and Lando Norris. Lewis was running where he started in ninth place. When Oscar Piastri pitted for tyres on lap 14, Leclerc found himself in the lead with Hamilton second. The SF-25s made a double pit stop on lap 17, taking on another set of Mediums, with Charles rejoining fifth, before immediately passing Pierre Gasly for fourth. Lewis rejoined tenth and was immediately on the attack, catching and passing the group ahead, in the order Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Esteban Ocon, getting as high as fifth when Gasly made his second stop. Nearer the front, Leclerc was now the fastest driver on track, to the extent he caught and passed Norris for third place. At this point, the Ferraris were on fresher rubber than those around them, which gave them a degree of flexibility when it came to how long to extend the second stint and regarding which compound to use for the final stint. However, a collision further down the order on lap 32 brought out the Safety Car, so that everyone dived into the pits for a pit stop that cost about half the usual time. At this point, there was no option but to pit for a final time, fitting Hards to both cars to go all the way to the chequered flag, having lost any advantage of being on fresher tyres. At the restart, Charles defended like a lion from Norris' advances to the extent that, for a brief moment, Hamilton managed to pass the McLaren. Lando got ahead again on lap 36 and from then on Lewis settled for bringing the car home in fifth place. There was more of a battle up ahead between Russell on Soft tyres, Charles and Norris, for the two podium places behind Piastri. In the closing stages, Leclerc began to struggle on his Hard tyres and Norris, in better shape on the Mediums overtook him with five laps remaining, so that Charles had to settle for fourth place, three seconds down.

The pace of the championship is relentless, with Formula 1 staying in the Middle East as next Sunday sees the fifth round, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix taking place on the very fast Jeddah Corniche circuit.

Charles Leclerc: There are no regrets after a race like this, we just need to find some more pace. We pushed a bit on the first stint and the second was even faster, but once the Safety Car reset things, our pace just wasn't good enough to fight the McLarens and George (Russell) in the Mercedes.

In general, there is not a particular type of corner where we are lacking, we just need more grip all round.

We will understand our upgrade better in Jeddah next week, I look forward to finding out what we will learn about it there.

Lewis Hamilton: Overall, it was a solid race. I got a decent start, made some progress early on and felt strong in the middle stint on the medium tyre and was able to make some overtakes. The car had good pace, and I was able to push while mantaining a performance window I hadn't been able to reach in previous races. The balance faded a little on the hard compound, but I'm pleased, Grazie to the team - the strategy and pit stops were really well executed and made a real difference to the race. We've taken some good learnings from this weekend and we'll carry that momentum into Jeddah. A big thank you as well to all the tifosi for the continuous support, it truly means a lot.

Fred Vasseur: We had the potential to do better today. The Safety Car did not come at the right time for us, at least for Charles, but this is not an excuse. We were in the middle of a good second stint and our strategy would have given us the chance to decide the tyre for the end of the race between Hard and Soft after having gone for two sets of Mediums in the first part of the race with both our drivers.

When the Safety Car came out, we had to take it but this spoilt our plans and maybe that's where we lost the best opportunities to bring home a podium finish. However, we scored good points with both Charles and Lewis who did well to come back after a tough qualifying, producing a strong race which is very encouraging.

We are where we are: McLaren is still a step ahead but we were fighting with them in the second stint and we have been able to fight with both Mercedes and Red Bulls. We'll keep working to be more competitive in the next races, starting in Saudi Arabia next week.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Manama here.