Lewis Hamilton apologises to Ferrari for costly decision to override strategy call during Singapore GP

Hamilton was running in third behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc on the 39th of 62 laps when a Virtual Safety Car appeared to give him the perfect opportunity to change tyres after he had been the first driver to stop earlier in the race.

Ferrari told Hamilton to follow Leclerc into the pits, but he ignored the call and stayed out, which resulted in him finishing the race sixth as he was overtaken by Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the closing stages.

After taking the chequered flag, Hamilton said on team radio: "Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy.

"My call, and I lost us valuable points.

"I'll try and make up for it in the next one."

The result saw third-placed Hamilton fall 111 points behind championship leader Antonelli, while his advantage over race winner Max Verstappen was reduced to just eight points.

Hamilton was excused from fulfilling his media duties after the race as he felt unwell after competing in the sweltering conditions, but he released a statement via the team.

"Today wasn't the result we were looking for and it was on me," Hamilton said. "At a track that's difficult to overtake, you need to try something different and I chose to start on a new medium tyre, to go long and try to make a one-stop work. Unfortunately the Medium didn't perform as well as the soft.

"I had a good second stint and the pace was back, but I couldn't make the progress I needed. Under the VSC, the team called me in but I missed the entry. After that, I decided to stay out and try to hold track position to the end but in the closing laps, I was struggling massively with tyre degradation and lost three places, finishing P6, which doesn't reflect the pace we had in the car today.

"A painful lesson today, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made. Not every call will work out, and I can accept getting it wrong but I'm sorry for the team for the points we lost today. They put so much into every weekend, and I wanted to deliver more for them.

"I'll continue to put the work in and come back fighting at the next race".

Vasseur: Call to Hamilton was crystal clear

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur confirmed after the race that Hamilton had ignored the pit wall's instructions.

"We called him, we called them both to pit," Vasseur told Sky Sports F1 .

"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."

Hamilton had been frustrated earlier in the race at being held up by Leclerc, as the pair's different starting tyres left them on different strategies.

Leclerc began on the soft tyre and Hamilton the medium, with the former turning out to be better performing. When Hamilton switched to the soft at the first round of pit stops, he found himself behind Leclerc, now on the medium tyre, with more pace.

Vasseur explained that Ferrari went into the race "blind" on which tyre would perform better because Saturday's Sprint had taken place in wet conditions on intermediate tyres, and the team hoped the split would boost their chances of challenging Verstappen, who cruised to victory from pole position.

"Today the soft was much better than the medium. That's why Lewis struggled 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 second and third, it was a good opportunity to take different options to fight with Max."

Schiff: Hamilton has lost trust with Ferrari

Sky Sports F1's Naomi Schiff said Hamilton's decision to ignore the pit wall was not surprising due to a loss of trust between driver and team.

There have been multiple occasions this season where Hamilton has not been happy with his team's strategic choices, most recently at last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

"I'm not that surprised though," Schiff said. "I think that they've sort of lost trust with each other on making the right decisions in certain circumstances.

"Do you blame Lewis today? Yes, maybe he made the wrong call. But do you blame the team last week? Yes, they made the wrong call then.

"So, I understand why Lewis is challenging them because he's not always confident that they're going to make the right decision.

"And maybe today he just really desperately wanted to get ahead of his team-mate and get that track position that on a track like this can sometimes make the difference.

"Let's not forget that before the VSC, they split the strategy, Lewis went in quite early on his mediums, had a fresh-ish set of softs when Leclerc came out in front of him, and Lewis didn't get to maximise that part of his stint because Charles was slowing him down as well.

"So, I do think there is a little bit of having to take control in some cases from Lewis' side because he doesn't really think he's going to get the best out of them."

Sky Sports F1's Jenson Button praised his former team-mate for offering an immediate apology.

"I really respect him for apologising at the end of the race," former world champion Button said. "Straight after the race is the best way to do it, and now they move on."

Button also rejected the suggestion that trust issues were a factor in Hamilton's decision.

"I disagree [that it was an issue of trust]," Button added. "I think he just wanted to make his call on the race, and he thought it was the right one.

"He didn't want to be sat behind his team-mate for the rest of the race, basically. He wanted to give it a go, and he knew his pace was there when he was on the soft tyre."

Formula 1 next heads to The Americas for another triple header with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first on October 23-25, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime