Charles Leclerc left to rue “a problem we’ve never had” after Q3 disaster in Singapore

Charles Leclerc blamed a lack of front tyre temperature for his disastrous Q3 display at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Leclerc’s final qualifying lap was deleted for exceeding track limits in Q3, leaving him ninth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Up until that point, Leclerc looked like a contender for pole position, but due to Carlos Sainz’s crash, the remaining nine drivers had time to complete just one lap.

With his tyres not up to temperature, Leclerc struggled to put a good lap together, with his time slower than Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.

It was then deleted for track limits, capping off an abysmal qualifying for Ferrari.

Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, Leclerc spoke about the issue he faced.

“A problem we’ve never had throughout the whole weekend,” Leclerc said.” Front tyres, blankets not working properly, getting out of the pits and the front tyres are super cold.

“I had to push like crazy on the out lap to try and recover the temperature. Never happened. That’s it.

“I have no idea yet. I haven’t analysed the data and asked the team in the in lap but there was no explanation given. I think they’re still investigating it. I don’t know.”

Leclerc refuted claims Ferrari weren’t “on it” after a lacklustre final practice.

In Q2, Leclerc was within a tenth of Oscar Piastri’s top time - highlighting Ferrari were serious contenders for pole position.

Leclerc believes Ferrari simply had to put a “lap on the board”.

“Today we were on it,” he explained. “In quali, at least. In FP3, we struggled a little bit. It was warmer and we knew that were maybe going to struggle with the setup. We were confident for quali it would come back.

“A 29.7 was quite a good lap in Q2. In Q3, we just had to  put a lap on the board but we never did.”