It is likely that Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, would deeply understand the Briton’s experience at the Singapore Grand Prix.
It looked like Hamilton was on track for a fifth-place finish after a two-stop strategy that seemed to be working out well for Ferrari.
He started behind Leclerc and their main focus was catching Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Fernando Alonso slowing things down ahead of them.
Alonso’s lead enabled Hamilton to pit for soft tyres for the final stint. The Monegasque star then allowed his teammate to pass, and he rapidly closed in on the young Italian.
But just as the Briton made the move into fifth, he radioed his team about brake issues that eventually ended his race.
Despite being 45 seconds ahead of Alonso at one point, Hamilton was soon under pressure from the Spaniard due to those issues.
Alonso did not hold back over the team radio, accusing Hamilton of cutting corners to stay just 0.4 seconds ahead by the finish line.
He also questioned why Hamilton was not told to retire given his car troubles and hinted that he sometimes gets favourable decisions from race stewards.
Charles Leclerc says Lewis Hamilton was put in a ‘really difficult situation’ by Ferrari at the Singapore Grand Prix
Leclerc spoke to Sky Sports F1 (5/10 4:11 pm) about Ferrari’s brake problems during the race and shared: “Oh, not to the end [of the race], it’s been like that from lap seven, or lap eight of the race.
“So, I had to manage a lot. For sure, there’s some lap time in it, but I don’t want to blame it all on that because it’s a track where everybody has to manage their brakes to some extent.
“I think Lewis and I, probably a lot more than the others, and we paid the price for it.”
He went on: “I think also the fact that maybe Lewis obviously having more grip with the new tyres was pushing more on the brakes as is always the case and that put him in a very difficult situation because when you have got grip and you see P5 you try everything to get there.
“But the brakes couldn’t handle that and also on my side it has been tough.”
The interviewer suggested that overheating might have been an issue during the race, and Leclerc responded: “I need to speak with a team but yeah surely they were too hot in these temperatures.”
Lewis Hamilton focuses on ‘positives’ after tough finish for Ferrari at Singapore Grand Prix
Towards the closing stages of Sunday’s action at Marina Bay Circuit, Hamilton looked set to cut into Leclerc’s lead in points just slightly.
That advantage is now up to 48 points between him and his teammate across this season, but that did not make Leclerc look less frustrated during his post-race comments.
Hamilton was in a significantly better mood after the race, despite a challenging finish. In his post-race media session, he commented: “It has been a challenging couple of days, but there were definitely some positives to take.
“I’ve felt good in the car all weekend, and we had a strong final third of the race. The softs gave us great attacking pace and meant I could close down a big gap to the cars ahead, but unfortunately, a brake issue cost us the overtake and the chance to score more points.
“We had the potential to be further ahead this weekend, starting from qualifying, so the focus now is on maximising what we have going into Austin and executing cleanly to bring home as many points as possible.”
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