Unseen Charles Leclerc mistake may have cost him Singapore GP win

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc admits he misread Max Verstappen’s deployment issues at the start of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, accepting that “maybe this was a mistake”.

The Monegasque came close to vaulting eventual Singapore winner Verstappen off the line, and ran him close in the early stages.

But the Red Bull driver’s pace would prove too strong across the first stint, with Verstappen easing to his first victory at Marina Bay.

Leclerc took advantage of a late VSC to pit for fresh soft tyres and consolidate second.

“I thought it was a one-off”

The race may have panned out differently, however, had Leclerc recognised Verstappen was having deployment issues in the early laps.

But he admits he thought these were “one-offs” and elected not to use more battery to try and force an overtake.

“I mean, you don't have much time to think in those moments,” he said of his start.

“I just saw that Max had a bit of a difficult start. I had quite a good start, so I went alongside him.

“Then there wasn't much space anymore, but I would have done exactly the same. And yeah, then it's quite tricky.

“I mean, I was on the left, a little bit behind him, couldn't see the panels on the right, so you lose a little bit all your references, because that's normally on the right that you have your references to brake.

“I tried to judge it in the best possible way, but Max managed to keep that first place.

“And then there were a few opportunities in the first few laps when Max had a deployment issue, but I always thought that it was a one-off, so I wasn't really using my battery, which maybe this was a mistake.

“And when I realised that he had no power at the end of the straight, I couldn't do anything.

“It was too late for me to use my power. 

“But I don't know if it will have changed much. Maybe, of course, for the first stint it will have helped, but I think eventually they just had too much pace for us.”

“We cannot forget the tendency of the last few races”

Leclerc started on soft tyres alongside Verstappen, while Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton went with the medium option.

But he doesn’t feel going down a different strategy route to start with would have made a difference.

“I don't think it will have helped.

“If anything, it probably will have been worse, because the medium just didn't feel like a great tyre.

“So I probably will have lost any flexibility to put Max under a bit more pressure around the pit stop time.

“Even though he was still fast, I think with the medium he will have been further away.”

Second in the Singapore Grand Prix marks Leclerc’s first podium since July’s Belgian Grand Prix.

And he is wary of suggesting this could be a trend for the remaining races, given how recent rounds have gone.

“It's too early to say, but it's true that we've brought some small parts here and there on the car, which maybe helped us to do a step forward.

“But yeah, we cannot forget as well the tendency of the last few races before this one.

“And the tendency I'm speaking about is that we were losing a little bit of pace compared to Red Bull, compared to Mercedes, and also compared to McLaren.

“But McLaren have been struggling a little bit more maybe in Sepang and here.

“But yeah, at the end of the day, it's all about who brings the upgrades as early as possible, and hopefully we'll be the ones to do a bigger step than the others at the next upgrades we bring.”