‘My choice’ – Lewis Hamilton holds hands up after Singapore GP setback

Lewis Hamilton admitted that SQ3 strategy which he pushed for at the Singapore Grand Prix failed to pay off.

The seven-time world champion cut a downbeat figure after managing P6 only on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint race around Marina Bay. Charles Leclerc put the sister Ferrari on P3, but believes that the Scuderia is still lacking raw pace.

Lewis Hamilton holds hands up at Singapore GP

Hamilton was one of six drivers, also including Leclerc, who opted against an immediate entry into the battle for Singapore Sprint pole, as the soft tyres came out to play.

The Ferraris did just one cooldown lap as part of the SQ3 strategy.

Ultimately, Hamilton’s 1:31.702 was worthy of P6 on the grid.

SQ3 did not go to plan for Hamilton, to his mind. He did not enjoy life on the Pirelli softs, and accepted responsibility for his run plan also failing to deliver.

“It was looking good in Q1 and Q2, and then I don’t really know where it went away,” he said.

“We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, and I think we got that wrong.

“But ultimately, just the car was very oversteery on that lap. I don’t know if the rears were not ready or if they were overheating, it was difficult to say. But it was very, very snappy oversteery, and it just wasn’t a good lap overall.”

Put to him that he had looked comfortable on the yellow-walled mediums earlier in qualifying, Hamilton added: “Yeah, on the mediums was good.

“Just much different on the soft. Loss of grip, but only on the front and not at the rear. So could be balance.

“Obviously, I had the pace in the first two sessions, and then all of a sudden, I just didn’t have the grip on the rear for some reason on that last lap.”

On the other side of the garage, Leclerc got within a quarter of a second of Max Verstappen’s pole lap. He will start third.

Leclerc felt he had got the most out of SQ3, but the deficit is a reflection of where Ferrari is at.

“I think I gained the lap time that we had to gain.

“The others had a bit of a different plan. I think they did two cooldown laps. We only did one cooldown lap. But honestly, it shouldn’t be an excuse.

“I think the raw pace since three, four races, we’ve lost a little bit of our raw performance and we’re just not fast enough to fight with them just yet.

“But still, I feel like there’s potential in the car, and for tomorrow, maybe with some fine tunings, we can be there or thereabout for fighting for pole. So it’s not too bad, but we are missing a little bit.”

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Leclerc accepts that P3 is “not a bad position to start on” for the Sprint, but warned: “You really want to be starting on P1. Overtaking is going to be very difficult.

“But at the end of the day, it’s only the Sprint race, and tomorrow we’ll have to do the job in qualifying.”

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