Ferrari star Charles Leclerc started the Singapore GP in P7 after a subpar session for the Scuderia. Lewis Hamilton started P6 as neither made the Top 5. The race wasn't a smooth one either for the two Ferrari drivers, with the Monegasque raging at his race engineer near the end.
Towards the end of the race, Charles Leclerc’s race engineer took to the team radio multiple times and informed the Monegasque about lifting and coasting to cool down the brakes and avoid potential issues like what eventually ended up happening with Lewis Hamilton.
“So rear disc imbalance has increased again. Try to cool down rear disc. 11 laps to go. Lawson in front,” said Bryan Bozzi, Leclerc's race engineer
“We need to keep doing the LICO (lifting and coasting), please,” said Bozzi a few minutes later on the radio
This led to a raging response from Charles Leclerc, who replied,
“Don't even complain. For f**k's sake, we are doing 200 metres of LICO all the time.”
Charles Leclerc had a great start off the line and was able to overtake his teammate and Kimi Antonelli and got up into the Top 5. However, after the first pitstop, Antonelli threatened to overtake the Monegasque driver and followed him in close proximity for multiple laps.
Antonelli eventually made the move, demoting Charles Leclerc to P6. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, opted for a two-stop strategy and soon caught up to the back of his teammate on fresher tires. Ferrari instructed Leclerc to let Hamilton by so that the seven-time F1 champion could chase Kimi Antonelli.
As Hamilton was chasing Antonelli, he lost his brakes and went wide into the corner. It was a major brake failure, and Leclerc was able to overtake his teammate and finished P6.
Charles Leclerc slammed ‘difficult car’ after subpar Singapore GP qualifying
Lewis Hamilton topped the Q1 session in qualifying, suggesting that the Ferraris will be in the fight for the top grid positions. However, that wasn't the case with neither of them making the Top 5. Charles Leclerc spoke with the media after the race and detailed the reason behind the qualifying struggles, as he said,
“Yeah, for sure. [It was] not a good lap, but to be honest not a good lap because the car has been unbelievably difficult since the beginning of the weekend to drive and to put things together. To learn things from the car when things are just reacting differently from one corner to another is very tricky, and that’s what happened today. I’m very disappointed, but it’s the way it is.”
Lewis Hamilton has been noted for track limits infringements after losing the brakes towards the end of the race. The Briton lost 45 seconds to Fernando Alonso on the final lap and finished just 4 tenths ahead of the Spaniard. If Hamilton is found at fault, the stewards will likely issue a five-second time penalty