Charles Leclerc doubts Ferrari had Lando Norris’ pace “in the car” at Singapore GP

Charles Leclerc doubts Ferrari would have been able to challenge Lando Norris for the F1 victory at the Singapore Grand Prix even if qualifying went to plan.

Leclerc could only manage ninth in qualifying after his best lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Even without the deletion, it’s unlikely Leclerc would have started any higher than seventh after he struggled with a lack of grip on his final lap.

On race day, Leclerc recovered to finish fifth, just behind Mercedes’ George Russell.

Reflecting on the race, Leclerc is unsure if the win was possible at the Marina Bay Street Circuit regardless of where he qualified.

“I would say yes, but looking back at the pace of the McLaren, and of Max, I’m not sure how many points have we missed today,” Leclerc told Adam Cooper F1.

“George definitely, I think we had the car in order to finish in front. I didn’t check again the pace of everybody, but what I’ve heard about Lando’s pace, I don’t think we quite had that in the car, and I don’t know where the others were behind him.

“So a few points lost. I think it was a good recovery today. But again, we paid the price of price of a bad quali. It will happen that I do mistakes on the Saturday, and I’ll have good qualifying also sometimes. But today I paid a little bit of a bad Saturday.”

Leclerc’s chances of finishing on the podium were severely compromised by Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso in the opening stint of the race.

Once the Monegasque was unleashed, he showed great pace.

Regardless, Leclerc enjoyed the fight through the field despite voicing some frustration over team radio.

“Yeah, I did [enjoy it],” he said. “From the end of the first stint to the last laps, I loved it. The first 25 laps were a nightmare, because I was just a sitting duck behind Fernando and Nico.

“And I was just hoping that they had to box very soon because of [the cars] behind, but it never really happened, and they went very long. And I just had to wait.

“But overall, it’s been a good race from that moment onwards. As soon as they pitted, we maximised our points. We just paid a little bit price of a bad quali yesterday.”