You could call it “The Agony and the Ecstasy” except not quite ecstasy because Charles Leclerc didn’t make podium at Singapore. But he did all but that after a disastrous Qualifying performance. Prior to qualifying, in Free Practice, Charles’ Ferrari and Lando Norris’ McLaren looked to be the fastest going into the weekend in Singapore. So what happened that things went so wrong?
A Qualifying Session to Forget
Ferrari’s hopes for a strong showing in Singapore qualifying came crashing down—quite literally—as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz endured a tough Q3 session that left the Scuderia reeling.
Carlos Sainz was the first to suffer, bringing out red flags after losing control of his Ferrari SF-24 and smashing into the barriers at the final corner. His crash prematurely ended his qualifying session, which had him start from a lowly P10 on the grid.
With the pressure mounting, Charles Leclerc was left to carry Ferrari’s hopes in a one-lap shootout. But it wasn’t to be. Leclerc, who had shown competitive pace throughout practice, found himself outqualified by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas before his lap time was erased for exceeding track limits at Turn 2. So he ended up having to line up in P9 for the race, just ahead of his teammate.
Speaking after the session, Leclerc didn’t hold back his frustration, pointing to Ferrari’s tyre management as the culprit for their poor performance. “We do so much preparation all weekend for this one lap in qualifying, which is as important as Monaco, and then we get out of the box and the front tyres are way too cool.”
“We threw everything in the bin with the Q3 tyre temperature issues,” he lamented.
A Weekend of Mixed Emotions
Both Leclerc and Sainz them faced an uphill battle in Sunday’s race, starting from the middle of the pack on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
Starting from P9 after the difficult Saturday session, Leclerc found himself stuck in traffic for a significant part of the race, trailing the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
“We had a frustrating first part of the race where we couldn’t do anything but just wait, and then once Nico and Fernando pitted I could push.”
Despite the slow start, things began to shift in his favour once his rivals made their pit stops.
Once clear, Leclerc’s pace improved significantly, and his second stint proved to be particularly strong. “We had good pace, we stopped and had a really strong second stint,”
One of Leclerc’s key moments came on lap 50 when he overtook Lewis Hamilton, who was struggling on worn tyres after an earlier stop. This move brought Leclerc up to P5, a position he was content with:
“That brought us back to P5, so on that I was really happy. I pushed quite a bit, and towards the end of the race, when it was time to overtake George, my rear tyres were not in the best shape and we didn’t manage to gain that position.”
“We did a good job anyway. However, it’s a bit of a disappointing weekend. It’s mixed feelings.”
“Looking back at it, yes the tyres were not exactly in the right window, but this happens very often in qualifying. The main issue was me locking up into Turn 1 and going wide and having track limits and a bad lap.”
“…The only problem is that to not do a lap in Q3 here in Singapore is probably the track where you pay the price the most.”
McLaren Triumphant
Lando Norris converted pole position into victory with a charging drive finishing 20 seconds clear of Max Verstappen and reducing the championship leader’s points advantage once more.
With no answer to Norris’s raw pace, Verstappen had to settle for a distant second position, while Oscar Piastri’s rise from fifth to third – and a lowly points finish for Sergio Perez – means McLaren move further ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.
Next up
The United States Grand Prix, with the Circuit of The Americas over the weekend of October 18-20 is Charles Leclerc’s next chance to prove Ferrari has what it takes to win against McLaren and Red Bull.
