‘I had a lot of struggles’ – Leclerc reveals ‘misjudgement’ that cost him Singapore pole

Charles Leclerc was disappointed to miss out on pole position to Max Verstappen for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Monegasque ruing “mistakes” and “misjudgement” that impacted his Qualifying performance.

After securing a double podium in the Sprint, Ferrari were in contention for another strong result in Qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton setting the pace throughout Q1 and Q2.

Verstappen’s effort was enough to give him provisional pole, and as Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap, the door opened for Leclerc, who beat his team mate and surged into P2 – qualifying just 0.054s slower than his Red Bull rival.

“Let’s say that the good lap was on the right lap at the end, but I had a lot of struggles during this Qualifying,” Leclerc reflected. “Q1 and Q2 were very difficult.

“I had some weird things going on with the brakes, the car pulling a bit under braking, which is not so nice on a track like here. But then in Q3, the lap was okay. I did some mistakes, and I think there was the potential to be on pole today, but Max just did a better job.

“On my side, I changed a little bit the car [ahead of Qualifying]. I was relatively happy with the car yesterday, so I changed a few things, not so much.

“At the end of the day, it was just a bit of misjudgement in Q3 – with the wind, maybe, we could have done a bit of a better job. But I think if you ask all the drivers on the grid, everybody can find something on that last lap in Q3.”

While Leclerc made a return to the front row, Hamilton was knocked down to P3 as he struggled with oversteer, leaving him to wonder what he could have achieved if he had approached the session differently.

“Another difficult Q3,” he said. “Congrats to Max; he did a great job. We made some changes going into Qualifying, the car was feeling so much better, and I really felt like she had more in her.

“We were just pushing her more and more through the laps and through the sessions. Q1 and Q2 were awesome. We got to Q3, and snaps into [Turns] 1 and 3 put me two-tenths down. The rest of the lap was good. Then the last lap, just again, struggled with snapping.

“I think there’s a real fine line with our car where it’s over the edge or under the limit, and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult. I think I probably had it in the first two [phases], but you have to look for the progress of the track, the grip coming up, so you have to kind of react to that. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have, so it wasn’t great enough from myself.”

However, it marked another valuable step forward for the team in Singapore after Hamilton converted P6 into P2 during the Sprint, suggesting that they could take the fight to Verstappen.

Reflecting on his chances of victory, he added: “Red Bull have done a fantastic job; they’ve done a great job with their engine, but I think also with their car. It’s obviously a great team, and I think they brought an upgrade in Baku which has really put them at the front.

“I think it’s really still a good result for us, to have two Ferraris up there. We can definitely… hopefully work as a team tomorrow to try and hold onto Max, and put them under pressure. I think that’s the only way it’s going to be. I’m sure he’s going to be fast, but hopefully together, as a team, we can potentially… Who knows? We’ll see if we can get ahead of him.”