Ferrari had not achieved a double for more than two years. He had become accustomed to fit with resignation those that Mercedes was getting: 22 at the same time. The strategy for not succumbing to humiliation was to lower your head and keep working. Singapore was his third victory this year, the third in a row. Since 2008 he had not managed to chain three consecutive wins. Singapore was also the end of Sebastian Vettel's drought. It had been 392 days since his last time at the top of the podium. They were also an unexpected double and a win. No one would have opted for the Scuderia at Marina Bay, a high-aerodynamic circuit where top speed and engine power are less relevant factors. For all these reasons there was a big party in red in Singapore, where each and every one of its members celebrated and smiled the overwhelming victory over Mercedes and Red Bull. All but one: Charles Leclerc .

His memorable pole on Saturday outlined him as a great candidate for victory based on statistics. In the past, the poleman had won eight of the 11 races played, so if Leclerc saved the start, the greatest dangers would be overcome. He must have thought that, but he was wrong. He fulfilled on foot all that Mattia Binotto had asked him to manage the initial section, but when the window approached to make the first stops the team called Vettel instead of him.

I am convinced that the intention of the people of Maranello was good. They advanced the German stop to try to win the position of Lewis Hamilton . However, the result was an unexpected surprise. Vettel's return lap with new tires was brutal (maybe he was the only one who knew what he was doing at the time), when Leclerc stopped a turn later and joined the track he could not understand why Vettel was ahead . In Ferrari either. It was not the goal to overtake Leclerc, but it had happened. The Monegasque had become a collateral damage, a victim of friendly fire, of a strategy that had come out much better than they had calculated. Maybe Ferrari did not value the desire that Vettel was going to put, the amount of gall accumulated in recent weeks to see how a young boy ripped all his gallons of rennet. The suffering sometimes spurs you and the reality is that the four-time champion flew faster than anyone else.

From a logical and practical point of view, it was the best thing that could happen to the Maranello squad. Victoria, double and morale injection for his veteran pilot. Leclerc can protest, but he has to assume that the team will always be above individual interests. Ferrari also achieved something more important in this winding urban layout: scare Mercedes. In the short term they will only take away some victories, but the titles are not in danger. In the medium term Ferrari is scary. They have made a car at the height of Mercedes, a more powerful engine and have an exceptional pair of drivers. 2020 may be the biggest challenge of the Mercedes hybrid era.

The challenge of Carlos Sainz is to face a great prize in which everything goes well. In Belgium a mechanical problem caused him to leave. In Italy, a wheel badly tightened. In Singapore, Nico Hulkenberg hit him at the start causing him a flat tire that led him to be bent. He had qualified well, had gone well, but his options vanished in the fifth corner. With the damaged car he faced the rest of the grand prize. Safety cars helped him into the group and allowed him to at least fight for a few laps. He finished twelfth, but Carlos doesn't want that anymore. Carlos wants to challenge Red Bull now. Fighting to be the first of the rest is not enough. It is what predators have. They always want more.

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