Charles Leclerc admitted he threw away the chance of victory at the Singapore Grand Prix with a start that was "not good enough".
With Max Verstappen well down the order after his qualifying misfortune, Leclerc took full advantage by sticking his Ferrari on pole. He would have hoped to convert that into a fourth race win of the season, but his chances of doing so evaporated with his poor launch off the line.
That underwhelming start allowed Sergio Perez to nip in front and take the early lead of the race. And the pace of the Red Bull proved to be too much, as the Mexican tamed the treacherous conditions admirably to lead for the rest of the race.
"The start wasn't good enough and then it was a really difficult race for us to overtake," said the slightly frustrated Monegasque after the race. "With Red Bull, it seemed we had the upper hand in the first few laps and then they seemed to struggle a little bit with warm-up, but then once they put the tyres in a window they are very strong.
"At the end of the race it wasn't that representative. I was pushing until the gap was like 5.1 seconds, and then when I knew it was 5.1 I just kind of brought the car home, so the pace wasn't that representative at the end. Having said that, I pushed quite a bit at the beginning of the stint and probably my tyres were a little bit overheated at the end."
While the race win again eluded Ferrari, the Italian team recorded its first double podium since the Miami Grand Prix in May. Leclerc was surprised when told that fact after the race, adding it was an indicator that the team is making improvements after a string of strategy errors that have blighted their season.
"That’s good, and as I said before the weekend, we are trying to take those last races to improve our execution on Sunday – communication, strategy," he added. "We've already done a few changes and it’s not been an easy race today, but I think we've made the right choice and I'm happy. Then of course we'll look into the start because that's where we more or less lost the race."
His team-mate Carlos Sainz appeared less satisfied with his own spot on the podium, and also blamed a poor first part of the race for his inability to challenge for the victory. "Bit of a strange one. I've been quick all weekend, quick in every condition," the bemused Spaniard told reporters.
"That first stint on the intermediates, I lost the front tyres very quickly and since then I couldn't push and I was struggling a lot with the car rotation, didn't find really the grip and I wanted to go onto the slicks as soon as possible to try and recover the pace. But towards the end of the race I managed to recover the pace, but it was a bit too late to be honest. I had to settle for P3 because there wasn't much more."
