OMNISPORT

Charles Leclerc insists his faith in Ferrari has not wavered but he was waiting to hear an explanation for the team's race strategy for a second week running.

In Singapore, with Leclerc chasing a third straight win, the Scuderia opted to allow Sebastian Vettel to undercut the pole-sitter, leading home a Ferrari one-two.

Leclerc again qualified fastest in Russia, before he allowed Vettel to use his slipstream and put Ferrari in position for a repeat.

This time, team orders instructed Vettel to let Leclerc back in front, a swap finally executed after some further squabbling over the team radio.

Vettel soon retired with a problem and Lewis Hamilton profited to take the victory, with Leclerc in third and frustrated by the delay in following tactics during the race.

"I will always trust the team, but yeah, the tactic was me giving the slipstream for one-two at the end of the straight, which happened," he said. "Then I don't know. I need to speak with the team to know better the situation."

He added: "At least we are quite consistent. It's good to be back on the podium, but it's a shame for the team not to have a second car up here."

Leclerc ended the race attacking second-placed Valtteri Bottas with the aid of DRS but explained he could not get through.

"We were quite quick. We definitely had the pace to finish in front of Valtteri, but it was quite tricky to follow," he said. "As soon as I was getting around one and a half seconds behind him, everything would overheat and it would be quite a difficult time for us. So third today is the best we could have done, unfortunately, with the safety car."