"We threw everything in the bin": Charles Leclerc lashes out at Ferrari's lack of tire preparation in the F1 Singapore GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc has criticized Ferrari's lack of tire preparation during the driver's final Q3 lap, which ended up costing the team a potential front row. Leclerc and pole-sitter Lando Norris appeared to be the two drivers who had everything nailed around Singapore on Friday.

Come Saturday, while McLaren continued to hold its own, Ferrari fell back a little in the pecking order. However, what happened with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari was more interesting to watch.

Despite McLaren's surge, Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari had managed to hover around the front and could have contested for the front row. However, it all went downhill on the last run when the Monegasque was sent out on the track on cold tires, which meant he just couldn't put them in the optimum window for the push lap.

Leclerc ended up locking up into turn 1 and going off track, which essentially ended his qualifying as he would now start the race on the 5th row. After the session, Charles Leclerc was furious at the team as he claimed that a strong result was thrown into the bin. He told the media, including Sportskeeda:

"Q1, Q2 was going well, I was kind of hopeful again after FP3 that went wrong. But then I got out of the box in Q3 and the front tyres were way cooler. We do so much preparation all weekend to get to this one lap in quali, where we know it's as important as Monaco, and we get out of the box and we are way too cold on the front tyres. And that puts all of our weekend into a very bad place," LeClerc said.

Further detailing how they were yet to pinpoint the exact issue and his struggle with the tire grips, LeClerc added:

"We don't know the exact issue yet, but fact is we started the lap with two cold front tyres, locked up into Turn 1 and that was it. I never really had the front grip I wanted. [Even after FP3] we were expecting to have a strong quali. Q1 and Q2 did confirm that we were on the pace to do a good thing. And then we threw everything in the bin with the Q3 tyre temperature issue. We've got to investigate that," he added.

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Charles Leclerc claims a better result was on the cards

Charles Leclerc felt that a better result would have been possible had he not encountered a tire warm-up issue. For reference, Leclerc's fastest lap in FP2 on Friday alone would have seen him secure a front row. Not only that, even the compromised lap from the driver was 6-tenths down on pole (despite the lockup into turn 1).

Talking to the media, the driver said that he was looking for a better result that seemingly slipped away from him. Leclerc said,

"I'm not going to go into the detail of the numbers, it's not exactly that. But obviously we are speaking about, one degree, two degrees to get it right or completely wrong. It was more than that," he said.

Commenting on the drop in performance after being put on cold tires, he added:

"There was nothing to do. I think we were in a good place, we've been competitive, I also think it's a good job we've done. But I don't know what happened on my outlap, out of the box with temperatures, because it went all wrong from that moment onward," Leclerc added.

Charles Leclerc came into the F1 Singapore GP on a 4-race podium streak. He's going to start the race on the 5th row this time which can make it tricky for the Monegasque to get a top 3 result at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.