Ferrari tyre call backfires, Hamilton salvages third in wet Sepang
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 4, 2026
Hamilton tyre call
Ferrari’s tyre choice put Lewis Hamilton on the back foot from the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, where heavy rain and thunderstorms delayed the race and left the field facing a wet launch. While 14 of the 22 drivers started on intermediate tyres, Ferrari sent Hamilton and Charles Leclerc out on slick soft tyres instead. Hamilton had qualified second, but the decision sent him down the order early and forced him into recovery mode before the race had settled. He fought back to third, a result that rescued points from a difficult afternoon but did not hide the cost of the opening gamble. Hamilton said Ferrari’s early tyre call put his race in trouble and called the podium finish “bittersweet.” The race still gave him a strong result after a start that looked set to undo his qualifying work, but the wet conditions exposed how quickly a strategy call can reshape a grand prix. The wrong tyre at the wrong moment changed the shape of his race almost immediately. He had to chase from behind while the track stayed treacherous and the field split between those who trusted intermediates and those who took a different route. In the end, third was a salvage job, not a clean conversion of his second-place grid spot.
Leclerc chaos
Charles Leclerc’s race unravelled in a different way, but the result was the same for Ferrari. Contact with Nico Hülkenberg set off a chain of problems that left Leclerc dealing with a puncture and front-wing damage, then a slow pit stop that dropped him to last place. From there, he mounted a recovery to finish fourth, a climb that kept Ferrari from leaving Sepang with only one car in the points. Leclerc said that “everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong” in Sepang, and his own assessment matched the chaos around his race. He also said fourth was the best result possible given the trouble and his lack of feeling with the car. That made the finish feel more like damage limitation than reward, even though he dragged the car back through the field after the setback. The sequence of contact, damage and a costly stop left him with no margin for error, and Ferrari never had a clean answer after the early hit to his race. Leclerc’s recovery mattered, but it also underlined how much ground the team lost when the strategy and the incidents stacked up against him. His drive kept Ferrari in the fight for points, yet it came after the race had already slipped beyond the team’s control.
Ferrari points
Ferrari still scored 27 points and remained second in the Constructors’ Championship, but Sepang left the team with a sharp reminder of how much a tyre call can matter in changing weather. Fred Vasseur said Ferrari was on “the wrong side” of the tyre call, a blunt admission after the team sent both drivers out on slick soft tyres while most of the field started on intermediates. The result was two compromised races, even if Hamilton and Leclerc both recovered well enough to keep the damage from becoming worse. Vasseur’s comment fit the mood after a day when Ferrari’s decisions, rather than its outright pace, shaped the story. Leclerc also backed Vasseur amid speculation about the team principal’s future, a sign of support after a weekend that put the team’s strategy under a brighter light. Ferrari left Sepang with one podium, one fourth-place finish and enough points to stay second overall, but the race exposed how thin the margin is when a wet start forces a split-second call. The team had speed in qualifying with Hamilton on the front row, then lost control of the race picture as the weather and the tyre choice pushed both drivers into recovery mode. Ferrari kept its place in the standings. It also left Malaysia knowing the opening decision set the tone for everything that followed.
