Ferrari showed competitive pace on their first day of the 2026 F1 Singapore GP weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. However, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton leave Friday of the 2026 F1 Singapore GP with mixed feelings. While the SF-26 showed strong front-running pace potential, both drivers missed out on a front row start for the Sprint.
After a strong performance in FP1 where he finished P2, Leclerc placed himself P3 on the starting grid after clocking in a laptime of 1:31.399 in Sprint qualifying, 0.243s slower than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on pole. While teammate Hamilton, will be starting the Sprint in P6 after he concluded the session with a fastest laptime of 1:31.702.
Charles Leclerc reflects on Ferrari performance at 2026 F1 Singapore GP
Reflecting on his performance in Sprint qualifying, Leclerc concluded that Ferrari were “not fast enough” in comparision to their rivals on track despite qualifying in P3.
The Monegasque then shared his insight on the performance deficit Ferrari faced during Sprint qualifying at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP. According to the 28-year-old, Ferrari had chose to do only one cool-down lap instead of two like majority of the grid.
“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 cool-down laps. We only did one cool-down lap. Honestly, I don’t think it shouldn’t be an excuse.”
Leclerc also stressed that Ferrari just lacked the raw pace needed to compete with the leading teams. Regardless, he remains optimistic about the SF-26 performance at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and believes the Scuderia will be able to find an optimal se-tup ahead of GP qualifying.
“I think the raw pace, since three or four races, we’ve lost a little bit of our performance. We’re just not fast enough to fight with them just yet. But still, I feel like there’s potential in the car. For tomorrow, maybe with some fine tunings, we can be there or thereabouts for fighting for pole. It’s not too bad, but we are missing a little bit.”
Why starting in the front row is ideal
Leclerc then explained why he was dissapointed despite starting in the top three. As explained by the Monegasque, overtaking is notoriously diffcult at the Marina Bay Street Circuit due to the narrow and twisty layout of the track.
Hence, starting in the front row would have placed him in a more ideal position to clinch a victory.
Nonetheless, Leclerc reminded everyone that this was only the Sprint race and that they still had qualifying which will be Ferrari’s priority on Saturday at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP.
“Yes, it’s not a bad position to start on, but on a track like this, you really want to be starting on P1, so overtaking is going to be very difficult. So we’ll see. But at the end of the day, it’s only the sprint race, and tomorrow we’ll have to do the job tomorrow in qualifying.”
Lewis Hamilton on frustrating SQ3 run at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP
Despite strong strong pace and promising results in SQ1 and SQ2 of Sprint qualifying, Hamilton was unable to reproduce a similar result in SQ3 on the soft tyres. On top of that, the seven-time World Champion was also only able to attempt one flying lap in SQ3, resulting in a frustrating end to the session for the Briton.
“It was looking good in Q1 and Q2, and then we did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, and I think we got that wrong. But ultimately, the car was very oversteering 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 oversteering, and it just wasn’t a good lap overall.
“Yes, on the mediums, it was good. Yes, just much different on the soft. Lots of grip, but only on the front and none at the rear. It could be balance, but ultimately, just yes. Obviously, I had the pace in the first two sessions, and then all of a sudden, I just couldn’t pull. I didn’t have the grip on the rear for some reason on that last lap, so here’s what it is.”
