Lewis Hamilton revealed a last-minute set-up change was the reason he struggled in the final part of qualifying in Singapore.
The Ferrari driver was quickest in the first two rounds of qualifying but fell to third place in Q3.“It’s just balance,” Hamilton explained after qualifying. “The car felt good. I think my team, the engineers, did a fantastic job, as well as the mechanics, between the sessions.
“The car felt amazing in Q1 and Q2, and when I finished the laps, I was like, “She’s got more in her.” And the only way in order to try and extract that is to try and add wing.
“In doing so, I think it just tipped it over the edge. It was only like one hole [of front wing angle] or something like that, but it was just on the knife point, and after that then the car was just snappy, and none of the laps in Q3 are any good. So, I’m grateful to be third, to be honest, given that those laps weren’t very good.”
Hamilton made a strong start in Saturday’s sprint race, jumping from sixth on the grid to third. With Charles Leclerc starting in front of him in the other Ferrari and Max Verstappen on pole position, Hamilton says he and his team mate can co-operate to attack the Red Bull.
“The right side is hopefully a little bit better to start on,” he said. “It’s obviously a short start, the start that I had was obviously in the wet, so it’s much different when it’s dry. And I think tomorrow is [supposed to be] dry.
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“It’ll be very hard for us to beat Max tomorrow, but there’s two Ferraris there, and I think hopefully there might be opportunities for us to work together to try and apply the pressure.
“They’re very, very quick, but I think we have the car in a good place that hopefully we can at least hold on.”