Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Ferrari for his horror strategy that saw him fall from third to sixth in Formula 1's Singapore Grand Prix.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton looked destined to finish on the podium in Singapore, but his baffling decision to try to hold out on a set of soft tyres for 44 laps saw him drop three places and ultimately cross the line in P6.
Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc took second behind race-winner Max Verstappen, who secured his first victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
After taking the chequered flag, Hamilton immediately apologised to Ferrari and held his hands up for what he claimed was his decision to stay out.
Hamilton dropped from third to sixth in Singapore
"Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy,” the 41-year-old Briton said. "My call, and I lost us valuable points.
"I'll try and make up for it in the next one. Great job with the pit stop though.”
Hamilton 'missed pit entry' despite "crystal clear" call
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur confirmed the Maranello squad planned to double stack its drivers under the virtual safety car.
But Hamilton missed the pit entry and stayed out.
“We kept the door open for the two options, depending on VSC, and that was the case,” Vasseur explained.
Vasseur explained that Ferrari planned to pit both cars under a VSC
“We called him, we called them both to pit. It would have been P2-P3 because we were P2-P3 on track, and he missed the pit entry, and honestly it’s a bit of a shame because he’s losing a podium also.
“It was crystal clear on the radio. But now let’s be focused on Austin. The performance this weekend was ok. We have to be focused on the future.”
Explaining Ferrari’s decision to split its strategy by starting Leclerc on softs and Hamilton on mediums, Vasseur added: “I think the main issue, it was true for us but it was true for everybody, on the grid you have a 50-50
“FP1 you don’t do so many laps and we don’t do laps with the hard tyre. We didn’t want to touch it for the race and we were expecting to do a long stint during the sprint race, but the sprint race was intermediate.
“That meant we all started the race today completely blind. I think today the soft was much better than the medium, that’s why Lewis started to struggle at the beginning and a bit less at the end.
“I think we were all in the same situation starting the race a bit blind and it’s true that for us, with the two cars 2 and 3, it was a good opportunity to take different options to fight with Max.”
On Ferrari’s overall performance and result, Vasseur said: “Overall it’s a good weekend. We did P2, P3 yesterday on the sprint.
“P2 and P3 in quali and P2 and we are not far away from doing P3 also today. I think overall over the weekend Max was a bit faster than us and this we have to try to catch up.
“But overall it was a strong performance from the team and the two drivers, and overall a good result for us.”
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