Making a mistake or missing the opportunity at the most inopportune moment is never the best thing to do. Especially if you do it on a track like Singapore, where qualifying is almost of the essence.
It happened instead to Charles Leclerc and Ferrari. After Sainz’s accident at the beginning of Q3, each of the 9 remaining drivers had only one attempt to attack the pole, but Leclerc could not take advantage of the tires because they were not at the right temperature.
From the exit of the box to the exit of the pit lane, Leclerc took just under a minute due to the traffic in front of him. In those 60 seconds the front tyres lost temperature, even if the Monegasque, at the end of qualifying, said that he had not had the right temperatures since leaving his box.
“The tyres weren’t even 50% ready. We came out of the pits and the front tyre temperatures were I don’t know how many degrees lower than the ideal temperatures. I don’t know why it happened. It only happened once and it happened on the last attempt in Q3.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Arriving at Turn 2, Leclerc went beyond track limits and had his time – which was by no means competitive – that would have placed him seventh deleted. Instead, he will be forced to start from ninth, alongside teammate Carlos Sainz on an all-Ferrari fifth row.
“I tried to do my best to get the fronts up to temperature but there was no way. I got to Turn 1 and I locked up. From that moment on it was a disaster. And it’s a shame, because we do all the preparation in the world to get to Q3 and do that lap, then we find ourselves with that problem… I’m disappointed.”
Leclerc’s disappointment is linked to the fact that, in his opinion, pole – or second place – today would have been within his and the team’s reach. But the low temperatures of the front axle prevented him from attacking and taking risks that could have paid dividends and that, instead, remained only in the mind of the Monte-Carlo driver.
“Today in Q3 we had the potential to finish first or second. We had found our way back after FP3. We just had to take more risks and I couldn’t take them because the tyres were cold.”
“I’m very disappointed and I prefer not to talk about the race. We know that qualifying in Singapore is everything, so there is little hope of winning. Then we’ll see. Tomorrow I will definitely feel better and I will be at 100%, but I’m really disappointed,” concluded the Ferrari driver.
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