Under the floodlights of Marina Bay, Ferrari had a podium within reach. Charles Leclerc pitted when told to, and Lewis Hamilton was supposed to follow him in in the exact same lap, during a virtual safety car period that could have saved his team roughly ten seconds. Instead, Hamilton stayed out, trusting his own read of the race, and the decision would unravel in front of millions of viewers across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The gamble briefly looked inspired.

Hamilton believed his pace on a fresher medium tyre, after an earlier unplanned stop, gave him a route to a one-stop finish on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult. However, as the laps wound down, his tyres degraded badly, and three cars swept past him in quick succession. He crossed the line sixth, a result that told nothing of the speed Ferrari had shown for much of the weekend. What followed was a rare, unscripted moment of accountability.

Over team radio, Hamilton told his crew: "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.

" Team principal Frederic Vasseur was notably forgiving, saying mistakes cut both ways in a sport built on split-second judgment, and that the task now was to turn the error into something useful.