Leclerc plays down key factor after missing out on pole: 'It shouldn't be an excuse'

Ferrari showed encouraging signs throughout Friday's running, with Leclerc finishing second in the only free practice session before progressing comfortably through the opening stages of Sprint Qualifying. The 28-year-old was particularly impressive in SQ2, topping the timesheets with a 1:32.246 on the medium tyres and raising hopes of a potential pole position.

However, the switch to the soft compound in SQ3 saw the competitive order change. Max Verstappen secured pole position with a 1:31.156, beating George Russell by 0.120 seconds, while Leclerc had to settle for third with a 1:31.399, just 0.243 seconds off the Dutchman's benchmark. Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, finished sixth, behind both McLaren drivers.

Despite coming close to the front row, Leclerc acknowledged that Ferrari's recent struggles with outright performance remain unresolved. He also pointed to a difference in tyre preparation between the Scuderia and its rivals, although he was reluctant to use that as an explanation for the result.

Speaking after Sprint Qualifying, Leclerc explained that Ferrari opted for a different approach to preparing the soft tyres, completing only one cool-down lap compared with the two he believed some of his competitors undertook.

The Ferrari driver then admitted that the team's difficulties extend beyond this particular session, suggesting that the Scuderia has lost some of its raw performance over the past three or four race weekends: "I think the raw pace, since three, four races, we've lost a little bit of our raw performance, and and we're just not fast enough to fight with them just yet."

Nevertheless, Leclerc remains convinced that there is more performance to extract from the car, with Saturday's qualifying session offering another opportunity to challenge for the front positions: "I feel like there's potential in in the car, and for tomorrow, maybe with some fine tunings, can be there or there about for fighting for pole. It's not too bad, but we are missing a little bit."

Although third place represents a competitive starting position for Saturday's Sprint, Leclerc believes the characteristics of the Marina Bay Street Circuit make qualifying particularly important. With overtaking notoriously difficult around the narrow streets of Singapore, the Ferrari driver would have preferred to start from pole rather than the second row.

However, Leclerc was quick to emphasise that the Sprint is only one part of the weekend, with the more important qualifying session for Sunday's Grand Prix still to come: "At the end of the day, it's only the sprint race and tomorrow we'll have to do the job tomorrow in qualifying."