Frederic Vasseur makes Lando Norris claim as ‘mistake’ costs Ferrari Singapore Grand Prix win

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Ferrari came away from the Singapore Grand Prix ruing a missed opportunity after showing decent race pace on Friday.

Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were close to the pace set by race winner Lando Norris during the race runs on Friday, but they were ultimately unable to put it to good use after separate mistakes in qualifying.

Sainz crashed while trying to prepare for his timed effort in Q3 and was forced to start from P10 on the grid, and received a hefty €50,000 fine for crossing the live track from the stewards.

Leclerc initially qualified in P7 but had his lap time deleted for track limits at Turn 2, meaning he dropped to P9 on the grid. It was a disaster for the team and meant they were set for a recovery drive at a circuit notorious for being difficult to overtake on.

Team principal Frederic Vassuer believes these mistakes in qualifying led to a difficult race on Sunday, claiming that their cars were showing a similar pace to Norris at the end when speaking to Motorsport-Total.

Ferrari showed a similar pace to McLaren during Singapore Grand Prix

Leclerc recovered to fifth during the race after being held up mostly by Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg before their first pit stop.

Further back Sainz finished in seventh but was nearly a lap down on Norris, who built up a 20-second gap to second-placed Max Verstappen. Vasseur believes Ferrari would have been in a better position had they qualified higher up the field.

“We were just as fast as Lando in the last 25 laps,” said Vasseur.

“Maybe he drove push-cool-push and charged the battery to try the fastest lap, I don’t know, but at least we were back on pace, and that was encouraging.”

“On Friday we were in much better shape than fifth and seventh. So that means that we missed something over the weekend. But if you start in Singapore from ninth and tenth place, then we did something wrong on Saturday. It’s not Sunday we did wrong, but we need to do a better job on Saturday.”

Ferrari closing in on Red Bull in Constructors’ battle

Despite the disappointing result in Singapore, Ferrari is edging closer to Red Bull in the Constructors’ battle.

The team is now just 34 points away from them with their latest result and could leapfrog them in the final six races of the season.

Helmut Marko claimed Red Bull is no longer focused on the Constructors’ Championship, as they attempt to figure out the problems facing their car to defend from Norris in the Drivers’ title battle.

Red Bull used Daniel Ricciardo to set the fastest lap in the closing stages of the race, controversially snatching the bonus point away from Norris.