‘This is a great day’ – Hamilton delighted with ‘mega start’ that earned him P2 in Singapore Sprint

Lewis Hamilton was thrilled by the opportunity to showcase his skills in wet conditions during the Singapore Sprint, with the Ferrari driver charging from P6 to the podium positions on the opening lap.

After feeling frustrated by his lack of pace on soft tyres in Sprint Qualifying, Hamilton executed a superb launch that saw him overtake both McLarens as well as his team mate Charles Leclerc on the damp track.

When George Russell crashed out of the Sprint, he gained another place and cleverly managed the remaining laps to secure P2, crossing the line 2.5s behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“I had a mega start which is awesome,” he reflected. “I love driving this track in the rain and those conditions, so as soon as the heavens opened I was like, ‘This is a great day’.

“I was trying to get close to [Verstappen] without killing my tyres, so I wasn't really pushing that much but I was bringing him in. Then I just realised that, at this point, we've still got a long way to go, I don't think we'll be able to overtake in these conditions, there's only one line, and so I backed off and then the right side started to overheat a little bit.

“But then I got the control back, sorted, and then towards the end I started to push and started to close the gap, but it's a tough track to overtake.”

The performance gave Hamilton confidence that Ferrari can put it all together in Qualifying and take the fight to their rivals, with the Briton targeting a fifth victory at the Marina Bay Circuit to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record.

He said: “I think we showed that we obviously have a good car. I think if we can do slightly better in Qualifying, get both cars up there, I think we'll be able to reapply pressure tomorrow to both the Mercedes and the Red Bull.

“They are quick, of course, but we can be there hounding them, so hopefully we can position the car in a slightly better position in this Qualifying session coming up.”

Leclerc was slightly less enthused by his P3 finish in the Sprint due to relentless issues with his intermediate tyres. At one stage, he instructed his engineer to “leave me alone” when asked to cool the rubber along the straights, before complaining about degradation.

“I struggled a lot from mid-race onwards,” Leclerc explained. “I went towards a quite aggressive balance on the other side of what I normally do with quite a weak front, which was quite good for the first half of the race, but then when it dried up I was nowhere, so it was kind of tricky at the end.”

He was nevertheless able to hold off Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in a late battle for the final spot on the podium, which came to an end when the McLaren pair collided on the last lap.

Reflecting on the incident, he added: “I knew I had to have a very good exit out of [Turn] 5 because I was very weak in all right-hand corners, particularly with the front left.

“I had quite a good exit but then I checked in my mirrors and I saw red lights on the back of the cars of the McLarens, so I knew that something happened. Kimi [Antonelli] was also very strong towards the end so, yeah, we just didn't have the pace at the end.”