Leclerc Laments the Mistake That Cost Him the Pole in Singapore

Charles Leclerc was left at the gates of pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix. The Monegasque Ferrari driver set the second best time of the qualifying just 54 thousandths behind Max Verstappen but far from settling, he lamented the mistakes and the "error of judgment" that prevented him from snatching the first position from the Dutchman: "Let's say the good lap came at the right moment but I had many difficulties during this qualifying. Q1 and Q2 were very difficult" Leclerc declared after the session.

The Monegasque explained that he suffered unexpected problems with the brakes of his SF-26: "I had some strange things with the brakes, the car went a bit when braking which is not pleasant on a track like this, but then in Q3 the lap was acceptable. I made some mistakes and I think there was potential to be on pole today but Max simply did a better job" he added. Leclerc acknowledged that he changed some things on the car before qualifying although not too many and that his error of judgment in Q3, possibly related to the wind, cost him the opportunity to fight for the first position.

"At the end of the day, it was just a bit of an error of judgment in Q3, with the wind maybe we could have done a slightly better job but I think if you ask all the drivers on the grid, they can all find something on that last lap in Q3" the Monegasque reflected. Despite the disappointment, Leclerc showed himself optimistic ahead of the race, Ferrari achieved a double podium in the Sprint, with Hamilton converting his sixth position on the grid into a second place, which demonstrates that the Italian team has the pace to fight with Red Bull.

Hamilton for his part took third position after a complicated Q3. The Briton had dominated Q1 and Q2, but in the final phase he suffered oversteer in turns 1 and 3, which cost him two tenths and left him without options to fight for pole: "Another difficult Q3, congratulations to Max, he did a great job. We made some changes ahead of qualifying, the car felt much better and I really felt it had more in it, we were pushing it more and more through the laps and the sessions. Q1 and Q2 were incredible, we got to Q3 and the snaps in turns 1 and 3 left me two tenths behind" Hamilton explained.

The Briton also highlighted the difficulty of finding the perfect balance with the SF-26: "I think there is a very fine line with our car where it is above the limit or below it and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult, I think I probably had it in the first two phases but you have to chase the track's progress, the grip that rises so you have to react to that. In hindsight maybe I shouldn't have done it that way so it wasn't good enough on my part" he admitted.

Ahead of the race, Hamilton trusts that Ferrari can stand up to Verstappen: "I think it's still a good result for us to have two Ferraris up there, we can definitely... let's hope to work as a team tomorrow to try to hold off Max and put them under pressure. I think that's the only way, I'm sure he will be fast but let's hope that together, as a team, we can potentially... who knows. We'll see if we can get ahead of him" the Briton concluded.