Charles Leclerc says Ferrari lacks the outright pace to challenge the leading teams after finishing third in Sprint Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay, with team mate Lewis Hamilton a frustrated sixth.
Leclerc’s best effort left him just over two tenths of a second behind Sprint polesitter Max Verstappen, a gap the Monegasque driver described as representative of Ferrari’s true competitive position over recent races.
“The real pace the last three or four races, we’ve lost a little bit of our performance and we’re just not fast enough to fight with them just yet,” Leclerc said, referencing Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren as the teams currently ahead of Ferrari in outright speed.
Leclerc had topped SQ2 on the medium Pirelli compound before switching to softs for the final SQ3 segment. He acknowledged a minor strategic difference with rivals — Ferrari completed one cooldown lap before their flying lap attempt, while others ran two — but was quick to dismiss it as a factor. “I think I gained the lap time that we had to gain. Honestly, I don’t think it should be an excuse,” he said.
Hamilton’s session unraveled more sharply. After showing competitive pace on the medium tyre through SQ1 and SQ2, the seven-time World Champion struggled badly on his sole SQ3 flying lap, with the car becoming unpredictable through the Marina Bay barriers.
“It was looking good in SQ1 and SQ2 and then I don’t really know where it went away,” Hamilton said. “We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice and I think I got that wrong. But ultimately the car was just very oversteery on that lap.”
Hamilton could not pinpoint whether the rear tyre degradation was a temperature or preparation issue. “I don’t know if the rears were not ready or were overheating, it was difficult to say but it was very snappy, very oversteery and it just wasn’t a good lap overall,” he said. The McLaren pair split the two Ferrari drivers in the final classification, leaving Hamilton sandwiched between Leclerc in third and the Woking team’s representatives.