Lewis Hamilton appeared to be building a genuine pole-position challenge in Singapore Sprint Qualifying before his final lap unfortunately unravelled dramatically in the closing sector. After lighting up the opening two sectors around Marina Bay, the Ferrari driver ultimately fell to sixth, with Jolyon Palmer believing the seven-time world champion may have pushed the rear tyres beyond their best too early in the lap.
The final eight minutes of Sprint Qualifying produced repeated changes at the top of the timing screens before Max Verstappen eventually secured pole. It was the Dutch driver’s first pole position in Singapore across any qualifying format, while Lewis Hamilton was unable to add to the four previous poles he had achieved at the circuit.
Jolyon Palmer spots the warning signs during Lewis Hamilton’s lap
From the moment Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to begin his final flying lap, the Ferrari looked committed. The British driver attacked the opening two sectors aggressively, extracting enough performance to put himself on a provisional pole trajectory.
Palmer, analysing the lap for F1TV, was impressed by how spectacular the Ferrari looked but also became concerned about the amount of sliding. He suggested during the lap that the rear tyres could begin suffering by the time Hamilton reached the final sector.
That concern proved well founded. After two sectors, Hamilton’s time was still strong enough to challenge for pole, but his advantage disappeared through the closing part of the lap. He initially crossed the line in provisional third before other drivers completed their final improvements and pushed him down to sixth.
The sharp fall-off matched the broader Ferrari problem seen when the field moved onto the soft compound. The Scuderia had looked especially competitive earlier, but Ferrari lost its Q2 advantage when the soft tyres became decisive in the final phase.
Hamilton loses half a second to Max Verstappen in final sector
The scale of the problem became clear from the sector times. Lewis Hamilton completed the final sector in 26.112 seconds, approximately half a second slower than Max Verstappen’s closing sector.
Palmer believed the Ferrari driver had reached the limit of the tyres too early. Although he described the opening stages of the lap as impressive, the former Formula 1 driver felt Hamilton had used too much of the available rear grip before reaching the final section.
According to Palmer’s assessment, the traction demands had already pushed the rear tyres hard, forcing Hamilton to make several steering corrections while dealing with the torque being delivered through the soft compound. By the final sector, the lap time began to fall away.
Lewis Hamilton could not explain where Ferrari’s pace disappeared
Lewis Hamilton was similarly puzzled after Sprint Qualifying. He explained that Ferrari had looked competitive through SQ1 and SQ2 before the performance suddenly disappeared in the final phase.
The seven-time world champion acknowledged that the team had followed a slightly different run plan from its rivals and accepted responsibility for that decision, believing the approach had been wrong. However, he also identified the behaviour of the car itself as a significant problem.
Hamilton reported that the SF-26 became extremely oversteery on the decisive lap. He could not determine whether the rear tyres had failed to reach the correct operating window or had instead overheated, but the car became particularly sharp and unpredictable at the rear.
That assessment closely matches Ferrari’s own post-session concern, with Hamilton taking responsibility for the one-lap SQ3 approach while also highlighting the sudden loss of rear grip.
Ferrari pace was there before the decisive SQ3 run
The frustration for Ferrari is that the underlying speed had already been demonstrated. Hamilton had been competitive through the first two parts of the session, and the opening two sectors of his final lap suggested he still had enough pace to threaten the front of the grid.
Instead, the final sector exposed how quickly the balance could deteriorate once the rear tyres began to struggle. Palmer’s interpretation was that the Briton had extracted too much too soon, while the driver himself remained uncertain whether tyre temperature or overheating had been responsible for the sudden loss of performance.
The result leaves Ferrari with another example of how narrow the operating window can be around Marina Bay. More updates on the seven-time world champion’s season and his performances with the Scuderia are available in the Lewis Hamilton Ferrari news section.
For Hamilton, the most frustrating element was how close the lap had looked to becoming something special. The first two sectors placed him firmly in the pole conversation, but by the end of the lap the rear-grip problem had transformed that opportunity into sixth place.
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