Charles Leclerc s🍷ays his loss of track time in opening practice for the Singapore Grand Prix due to a car issue is no excuse for his lack of confidence through Friday’s running at Marina Bay.

Arriving in Singapore following back-to-back wins in Belgium and Italy, Ferrari driver Leclerc saw his FP1 session come to an early end due to a gearbox problem that forced him to slow on-track before 𝐆coming to a stop in the pit lane.

Leclerc could only finish sixth in FP🔜2 later in the day after his gearbox was repla💦ced as he finished 1.2 seconds behind pace-setter Lewis Hamilton, with the Monegasque driver later saying that he felt a lack of confidence in the car all day.

“In FP1 obviously we had an issue, so I missed a few laps which are always important on a street track🦩,” Leclerc said.

“In FP2 I just didn’t feel confidence with the car, but al𓆉so with the track, so I need to work for tomorrow, try to improve the driving.

“No big deal, it happened quite many times that on the Friday I was not where I wanted to be, sౠo I need to work and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”

Ask⛄ed if the lack of confidence was due to the FP1 issue, Leclerc said: “It definitely doesn’t he♍lp to lack laps in FP1, but it’s not an excuse.

“I believe it’s also comi🀅ng from myself, simple as that. I need to work on that, and tomorrow will be better.”

With Mercedes and Red Bull both looking strong th☂rough Friday’s running, Leclerc said he expected it to be a challenge to take the fight to Ferrari’s rivals heading into the rest of the race weekend.

“They are going to be very strong, s🐼o it’s going to be difficult, but we expected that,” Leclerc said.

“So we’ll try to make the best out of it.”