Charles Leclerc started the race with a better launch than Max Verstappen, claiming the inside line at the first corner. Many members of the press center thought the Monegasque should have maintained his position to take the lead.
However, Verstappen was on the outside, on the normal racing line, which offered a bit more grip. The Dutch driver was willing to take all the risks. Verstappen had stated the day before to Motorsport.com that second or third place in the drivers’ championship meant nothing to him and that he simply wanted to fight for victories.
In other words, Verstappen was ready to risk it all, although that was not the main reason Leclerc was unable to complete the move. The reference points that drivers use during braking –such as the 150 and 100-meter boards– were on the right before reaching the first corner, but Leclerc could not see them because he was alongside Verstappen. The Ferrari driver had to choose his braking point by instinct and tried to judge it as best he could. As a result, he does not consider it a missed opportunity, adding: ‘I would have done exactly the same’.
Despite this, Leclerc acknowledges he missed an opportunity to overtake Verstappen a few laps later. Verstappen seemed to manage his pace in the early stages to preserve his tires, but the four-time world champion revealed in the post-race press conference that this was not entirely a deliberate decision.
‘We had a few laps with deployment issues, so that’s where Charles really almost passed me at corner 7,’ Verstappen said.
Verstappen was not receiving full electrical power at the points he needed, a situation that his Red Bull teammate, Arvid Lindblad, also complained about, who uses the same power unit.
‘Yes, I also had problems with the PU, which we are trying to take care of. They let me pass on the straights, and the engine braking was really bad, which was hard to manage,’ said Lindblad.
For Verstappen, the problem was limited to the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, but Leclerc believes he should have taken advantage of this situation. ‘There were a few opportunities in the first three laps when Max had deployment problems, but I always thought it was an isolated case, so I wasn’t really using my battery, which perhaps was a mistake,’ Leclerc admitted.
Every time Verstappen was slow on the straights, Leclerc thought it would be the last time, so he didn’t anticipate the problem would repeat or adjusted his own deployment strategy accordingly. When the problem occurred again, Leclerc could no longer react. ‘When I realized I didn’t have power at the end of the straight, I couldn’t do anything. It was too late for me to use my power.’
The question, however, is whether this would have changed the final result. The position on track is crucial at the Marina Bay circuit, and in this scenario, Leclerc should not have spent so much time racing in dirty air. On the other hand, he acknowledges that Verstappen was simply too strong and that Red Bull managed their tires better.
‘I don’t know if it would have changed much. Clearly, during the first stage, it would have helped, but I think they ultimately had too much pace for us.’
Leclerc made another attempt in the final stages with a different strategy and a second stop under the virtual safety car, but a second victory of the season, following his triumph at Silverstone, proved elusive.
‘I’m happy, but not overly happy. I mean, second place is a good result considering the trend we’ve had lately, where we’ve been lacking a bit of pace. I feel that, particularly in qualifying yesterday, we had good pace. Today, in the race, Max had a bit more pace than us, which was to be expected, but maybe we were a bit closer than we expected. It was an exciting race and I believed in it until the end, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.’
Despite everything, it was enough to secure Leclerc’s first podium since the summer break and his fifth overall of this F1 season.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
