Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Singapore, 2019

2019 Singapore Grand Prix grid

2019 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Row 11. Charles Leclerc 1’36.217
Ferrari
2. Lewis Hamilton 1’36.408
Mercedes
Row 23. Sebastian Vettel 1’36.437
Ferrari
4. Max Verstappen 1’36.813
Red Bull
Row 35. Valtteri Bottas 1’37.146
Mercedes
6. Alexander Albon 1’37.411
Red Bull
Row 47. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’37.818
McLaren
8. Nico Hulkenberg 1’38.264
Renault
Row 59. Lando Norris 1’38.329
McLaren
10. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’38.697
Alfa Romeo
Row 611. Pierre Gasly 1’38.699
Toro Rosso
12. Kimi Raikkonen 1’38.858
Alfa Romeo
Row 713. Kevin Magnussen 1’39.650
Haas
14. Daniil Kvyat 1’39.957
Toro Rosso
Row 815. Sergio Perez 1’38.620
Racing Point
16. Lance Stroll 1’39.979
Racing Point
Row 917. Romain Grosjean 1’40.277
Haas
18. George Russell 1’40.867
Williams
Row 1019. Robert Kubica 1’41.186
Williams
20. Daniel Ricciardo 1’38.095
Renault

Penalties

Perez: Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
Ricciardo: Excluded from qualifying for exceeding the MGU-K power flow limit

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

61 comments on “2019 Singapore Grand Prix grid”

  1. Sebastian Vettel has a serious problem in Leclerc. This has all the shades of HAM v Alonso in 07. Well done Leclerc!

    1. @blazzz
      Leclerc is doing a better job than Hamilton did 12 years ago. 07 was Alonso and Hamilton trading blows, with Lewis hanging on longer for all those valuable 2nd places. Leclerc is just plainly beating Vettel.

      1. Ah @bigjoe– never one to miss having a swipe at Hamilton. You could argue that Vettel is not performing at the same level as Alonso was. You could also argue that Leclerc has also made a string of errors at the start of the season so swings and rounds about. But as I said, you have a reputation on these boards and I am well aware of who I am debating with. My fundamental point was quite simple- young charger proves more than a match for a multiple world champion.

        1. @blazzz

          No swipes from me at Hamilton. Lovely lad. Well spoken and polite lad he is, as you’d expect from a middle class Grenadian family. Lovely people. I also admire his take on climate change by avoiding meat based products and staying so fit.

          But, I’m never one to miss countering blatant over enthusiastic Hamilton fans who rate him way higher than he should be. He is a top 5 British driver. No more.

          1. @bigjoe

            He is a top 5 British driver. No more.

            Good thing that is just your opinion isn’t it?

            How does one get rated “the best” anyway, across different eras? That’s right, ultimately it is a subjective measure- one where there isn’t a constant measure which ultimately, makes for great debates but a futile exercise nonetheless.

            Well spoken and polite lad he is, as you’d expect from a middle class Grenadian family.

            Ah right, so there we have it. Thank you for confirming my suspicions about what your problem is with Hamilton. Here I thought he was British, silly me.

          2. You could simply just point out what it was about Jim Clark’s, Sterling Moss’s, Graham Hill’s, Hailwood, Surtees etc driving that made them all worse drivers than Mr Hamilton .
            Mansell’s 1992 season was superior to anything Lewis produced.

          3. @bigjoe
            No need- as I stated earlier, they all deserve they plaudits for what they achieved. Anyone can choose to rank them accordingly- that is their subjective opinion. What is a fact is that Mr Hamilton is the most successful British driver- statistically. Whether you think he deserves to be is a moot point- that is just what the records say and you can’t change that. I don’t have a problem with that- clearly you do and how you choose to exorcise those demons is your own perogative.

          4. @blazzz
            There are drivers with other records that are better than Lewis. Mansell’s 92 season for example. And Lewis’s percentages stats are taking a hit every time Leclerc and Verstappen beat him.
            I’m not sure what kind of kicks you’re getting out of saying ‘you have a problem’ and ‘demons’ . It looks a bit silly. Or maybe you’re just projecting?

      2. It’s a completely different situation. Hamilton was a rookie, up against the driver generally considered the best at the time in his absolute prime.

        Brilliant though CLC has been, he is not a rookie and is up against a driver who is clearly well into a pretty severe decline.

        Nice try though, littlejoe.

        1. @paulguitar

          He was up against Alonso in the Spaniards worst season ever, struggling to adapt his driving style to the new tires. But Lewis was beaten by Massa twice in the first 5 races just as we all expected the rookie to be beaten by Massa. He was also beaten by Massa in 2008 and then Alonso got redemption in a slow Renault and actually outscoring Hamilton in the last 5 races.
          Anyway, why do you Hamilton fans need to go back 12 years ? Surely he won more than 1 championship at McLaren in 6 seasons for you to talk about .

      3. ’07 alonso is A LOT tougher benchmark than ’19 vettel.

        1. @socksolid

          Hamilton lost to the 08 (last 5 races Alonso) 2010 and 2012 Alonso all with the Spaniard driving slower cars.

    2. Except vettel is no where near the level of either vettel or alonso. This is mostly vettel vs ricciardo or vettel vrs a good driver

      1. I will admit that I always thought Alonso and Hamilton were better than Vettel. But you just don’t win 4 championships by being average. And before the “best car” arguments begin- let us just remember that F1 has always been about the car. You will struggle to name drivers who have won a WDC without a constructors winning car.

        1. You just contradicted yourself f1 is about having the best car, so average drivers could easily win 4x championships especially if they have the fastest car all 4 years and have teammates that are past their prime and the full support of the team. Vettel had 2 dominant cars, and the other two years was a car that was faster at most races. Grosjean would have probably won 3x championships in vettels place

          1. @carlosmedrano

            You just contradicted yourself f1 is about having the best car, so average drivers could easily win 4x championships

            Not really. The best drivers usually drive for the best teams.

            Grosjean would have probably won 3x championships in vettels place

            Highly doubt it. By that measure you are saying Grosjaen is as good as Vettel- which is just absurd. Even KMag is handing Grosjaen a good going over. I am no Vettel fan but you really are coming across as a hater.

          2. @carlosmedrano

            You just contradicted yourself f1 is about having the best car, so average drivers could easily win 4x championships

            Not really. The best drivers usually drive for the best teams.

            Grosjean would have probably won 3x championships in vettels place

            Highly doubt it. By that measure you are saying Grosjaen is as good as Vettel- which is just absurd. Even KMag is handing Grosjaen a good going over. I am no Vettel fan but you really are coming across as anti Vettel.

          3. It is the job of the best driver to win in the best car. And the best car does pretty much always win.

          4. @socksolid @blazzz

            Vettel beat Lewis and Jenson in their faster McLaren at Abu dhabi in 2010. A pressure drive, with tyres going off and won the title that very day.

        2. @blazzz

          You will struggle to name drivers who have won a WDC without a constructors winning car

          Alain Prost in 1985/1986
          MSC in 1994

          1. Prost in1985 had a better reliability than Alboreto. In 1986 won against a double suicide in Williams, like Raikkonen in 2007 against McLaren. In 1994 Schumacher won due to an incident against Hill after he went against the wall cracking under pressure, like he did again in the infamous 1997 Jerez incident. Also Schumi was driving an illegal Benetton and his main rival died in Imola.
            Anyway, other examples: Keke Rosberg in 1982 (again incidents helped him), Senna in 1991 (poor reliability at the start of the season for the Williams), Piquet in 1981 (again a Williams suicide).

          2. Also Hamilton in 2008 IIRC

          3. @tifoso1989
            Rosberg in 1982
            Hakkinen in 1999
            Hamilton in 2008

          4. Kimmi 2007

          5. @blazzz

            Alonso 05 and 06.
            McLaren were faster in 05 and Ferrari faster for exactly half the 06 season when Renault lost their suspension and tires. So both non dominant cars.

            2008 should have been Massa’s and he didn’t have the dominant car either.

          6. @bigjoe

            Alonso 05 and 06.

            Comeon, you seem like a competent lad? Renault won the constructors both years.

            Whatabouttery is just that- whatabouttery.

          7. @blazzz
            Adrian Newey admitted the 94 Williams had a design fault. He said only 2 years ago his biggest regret was not be able to design Senna a better car. The Benetton was also illegal and Schumacher cheating to the point of thinking he could ignore Black flags.

          8. @blazzz

            Renault won the constructors by 5 points thanks to Alonso putting the 3rd best car where it shouldn’t have been. Massa’s performances rocketed after Canada. The midway point after Renault lost their suspension and then tyres.

        3. @blazzz

          Vettel beat both the faster McLarens at Abu Dhabi in the last race to clinch the 2010 title. It wasn’t that easy for him.

    3. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
      21st September 2019, 20:26

      I would say Leclerc is doing well this year, but not as well as Hamilton did in 2007. There is the factor that this is LEC’s 2nd season, and not his first, however I believe that only makes a small difference. Hamilton however had more consistency and made far less mistakes. Off the top of my head LEC had already made several errors; Baku Qualy, Monaco race, Germany race and Hungary Qualy. Hamilton secured 9 consecutive podiums from the get go, and whilst the 2007 McLaren was notably more competitive overall than the 2019 Ferrari, there is no taking away from Hamilton’s consistency given that there were always at least 3 other drivers who were capable of finishing on the podium (RAI, MAS and ALO).

      LEC is certainly doing very well now, and he is maturing, but he did make some crucial errors at the start of the season – although I think he has moved past a lot of them now.

      Looking at HAM’s teammate in 2007 he faced ALO who had just come off the back of 2 titles in a row and was arguably at the peak of his career. Maybe it wasn’t ALO’s finest year but that isn’t a valid excuse, and he did seem rattled by having a younger teammate challenge him. LEC is in a similar situation to what HAM was in, but VET now (in my opinion) is far less competitive than ALO was in 2007. He has had 2 shaky seasons and unfortunately is error-prone and uncomfortable with the car and clearly not performing at his best. LEC is outscoring VET currently and is doing a very good job at the moment, but overall I believe HAM in 07 was a stronger driver than LEC in 19.

      1. @invincibleisaac

        Hamilton was beaten by Massa 2 wins to 0 in the first 5 races of 2007 (to be expected of course)

        Lewis then won twice and everyone went crazy how he’s beaten rookie records. Yet since when did any Rookie have a car of that quality? did anyone?
        let alone he had miles more testing than Leclerc and was totally at home at McLaren.
        His crucial (oh so great he beat Alonso) second place, came when Alonso and Massa were leading him then banged into each other. You could say he was clever sitting back, like maybe Prost might have done.

        Not to take anything away from Hamilton because I think 2007 was his most impressive season, as even with the most dominant car in history at Mercedes, he never dominated like Mansell did in 1992.

        So, lets not take anything away from Leclerc then.

  2. Surprise for me is the Renaults. Thought they would be right at the back but they’ve found some downforce from somewhere. McLaren should be worried.

  3. I didn’t expect Ferrari to be this fast around this type of circuit. Definitely a surprise.

    1. yes, who knew copying a front wing design that turned mercs season around back in 2017 would be of any benefit.

      1. Dont forget they have a new update for the floor as well which gave more downforce than the front wing

    2. @jerejj

      I didn’t expect Hamilton to get beaten by Verstappen and Leclerc in the same season without them having dominant cars.

  4. Who needs qualifying races?

  5. Brilliant laps by both Ferrari drivers as well as Lewis. Didn’t expect the updated aero to work so well. Hope for a great race tomorrow!

  6. Those mega laps from Vettel (His 1st run) & then Leclerc (The pole lap) in Q3 are the reason why qualifying races are a silly idea. They would rob us of mega exciting laps like those.

  7. What did Ferrari do with those upgrades? That’s impressive by them…. Awesome job by the top 3 especially Leclerc

  8. Leclerc has something special about him. Wow…

    I mean, a homegrown Ferrari product and at 21 about 15 years to come at the sharp end of the grid. He really has everything to earn the GOAT mantle from one Ayrton Senna.

    1. For starters- I disagree that Senna was the GOAT. IMO it has to be Prost.

      Secondly, the boy is special but I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself there. For the forseeable future he still has Hamilton to deal with and in the future, Max Verstappen. Time will tell how far he can go but alot will depend on Ferrari building him a car that can win championships.

      1. @blazzz

        Funny how you need to go back 12 years to claim how great Hamilton is because he beat Alonso 4 times, yet will not afford Leclerc the same adulation for beating Hamilton this year. Leclerc was still learning last year without the 1000’s of miles testing Lewis had.

  9. Wow!
    Leclerc is the real deal. The race will be harder for him as Mercedes get their advantage back in places.

  10. So nice to see Ferrari find the right direction with aero, finally. With their power advantage and proper downforce they could fight for wins in every race. And Leclerc is becoming a monster, he’s quickly been ironing out his mistakes from the start of the season and found agressiveness each race.

    1. If they can keep this up, maybe the fight for 2nd this year will be interesting @gechichan, as well as the races; and next year might be very interesting.

  11. Race could be a different picture altogether. But it is indeed good to see that Ferrari found some downforce and Renault showing a good balance by splitting Mclaren. Ferrari in sector 1 was very good today. I thought RBR would be a bit more close.

  12. Ferrari fast everywhere, it will be hard for Mercedes to win races in the remaining races. They are now living up to their pre season expectations.
    Leclerc has altered the driver market for the next few seasons.

  13. Why Mercedes retain Bottas and why Haas retain Grosjean? Makes no sense.

    1. BOT’s case is simple: to please HAM (and keep things calm at Mercedes). BOT probably is the best no.2 in history. He gave up his win last year without any fuss… unlike Barrichello. At least Barrichello got his win back.

      1. Agreed. Mereceds have nobody to blame but themselves for keeping with Bottas.

      2. @mg1982

        A bit of a shocker really. If Merc had their advantage locked in, like when the token systems was active, you might understand it. but this could bite them in the ars* if Ferrari can stop dropping the ball .
        Lewis will have his work cut out.
        Ricciardo’s manager was in talks with Merc. Remember when everyone claimed that Dan was the best overtake in F1. exactly what they needed at Monza, and could have proved useful tomorrow. But still, Merc could be set up for the race and get a 1-2 finish. Let’s give Bottas another chance.

  14. A qualifying session shows how important having a great qualifier is. With their last year’s lineup they’d probably be second and 4th.

  15. Ferrari race pace good enough for the win? Based on FP2 long runs it isn’t, be interesting to watch tomorrow, not easy to pass here, I wonder if Leclerc drives slowly enough for Vettel to keep up so the Mercs can’t “gang up” on him?

    1. @davidjwest

      Good point. I hope if Merc win it’s not without some fun and games :)

  16. Not much being said about Albon. The lad did alright.

  17. @blazzz

    Plot 2006 results for both sets of driver for Ferrari and Renault. The sudden change is staggering.
    Alonso’s car was 3rd best after Canada. All 4 top drivers had the same amount of retirements each too.
    Alonson’s incredible podiums towards the end won Renault the championship. If you cant see that then I’ll have to start deleting your alerts in my inbox and have the discussion with someone more savvy.

    1. Bhave yourself man. There were 5 points in the constructors.

      Here’s an image of the top 4 drivers results. We all know what happened to Renault mid season. Alonso was a trooper for keeping up .

      https://imgur.com/vzk5uou

    2. @bigjoe

      lot 2006 results for both sets of driver for Ferrari and Renault. The sudden change is staggering.

      Why? Will this change the championship standings in retrospect? While I am sure such an analysis would be interesting it is stil whatabouttery. It’s one thing building a quick car, quite another making sure it finishes races and collects the points to ensure it actually wins a championship. For someone who seems to have a decent aptitude on all things F1 simple things seem to escape your grasp.

      Alonson’s incredible podiums

      This is nonsensical. Alonso’s podiums alone would not have been enough to win the constructors. It is also worth noting who was on the other side of the garage- a journeyman in Mr Fisichella. Most would even struggle to remember him today.

      If you cant see that then I’ll have to start deleting your alerts in my inbox and have the discussion with someone more savvy.

      As you were- you are entitled to preach to preach to an echoe chamber that shares what are IMO, your flawed assertions. I can give you a few pointers if you like.

      Anyway, enjoy the race :)

Comments are closed.