Ferrari ‘should have won’ in Singapore

Fernando Alonso believes Ferrari should have won the Singapore Grand Prix, having finished just behind Carlos Sainz.

The Aston Martin driver picked up four points for eighth at the Marina Bay Circuit having undercut Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg at the pitstop window, who Alonso was in a train with as well as Charles Leclerc – who would eventually finish fifth.

Having picked up his fourth top-10 in five races, Alonso suggested that he had outperformed the real pace of the AMR24 from across the weekend.

Asked if he had extracted the maximum, the two-time champion, who was the first to finish of the lapped runners, replied: “Yeah, absolutely.

“Behind the top four teams, just in front of Checo, so normally it’s ninth and 10th available. Finishing eighth is a bit better than our best dreams.

“Good points, but still one lap behind and not great pace, difficult car to drive the whole weekend. So yeah, we were just lucky we got points, but it was possible to be P15 and have the same feeling.

“I think we should [have] be 15th and 16th. We are eighth, two seconds behind a Ferrari. So I don’t know if I can do more.”

Ferrari’s duo started out of position having endured a nightmare qualifying, with Sainz crashing at the start of his first Q3 lap before Leclerc had his best effort deleted for exceeding track limits.

It took Leclerc and Sainz out of the fight for victory having shown competitive pace across the practice sessions – albeit with two of the three held in unrepresentative conditions.

But both drivers had their progress stunted by slower drivers during the race and were forced to use strategic options to advance through the top 10. However, Alonso believes the Scuderia would have been victorious had they been in position.

“The Ferraris were, I mean, they should have won this race, probably. They were the fastest car this weekend.”