Ferrari drivers ready for team orders to ensure Singapore win

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc expect team orders from Ferrari to come in to play in the Singapore Grand Prix if the pair are fighting at the head of the field in Sunday's race.

Sainz extended his domination in free practice at Marina Bay into qualifying on Saturday, the Spaniard never putting a foot wrong in the session to claim his second consecutive pole.

Sainz edged Mercedes' George Russell by 0.072s while Leclerc clocked in third just 0.007s behind the Briton.

Red Bull's disastrous qualifying has left its usual pursuers – Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren – among themselves to battle it out on race day and end the Milton Keynes-based outfit's clean sweep.

It remains to be seen however, if Ferrari can carry its momentum into Sunday's race, especially against a Mercedes team that generally performs better in race trim.

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But if Sainz and Leclerc can uphold their strength and they find themselves fighting each other like in Italy two weeks ago, they expect the Ferrari pitwall to intervene, although Sainz's notes that Marina Bay doesn't really lend itself to wheel-to-wheel dicing like at Monza.

"First of all, I'm sure that the characteristics of the track is not that it allows to have the nice battles and great wheel-to-wheel racing that we had in Monza, which again was a lot of fun and a great battle," Sainz explained.

"This track is very, very different. And of course, we will be looking into tomorrow to see everything that we can do to beat the Mercedes to get the cars into 1-2.

"I'm sure that the team will prioritise the overall team result and try to get the win."

Leclerc was on the same page as his teammate but hoped that Ferrari will give Sainz and himself a free rein to fight if they are fortunate enough to hold a significant margin over their rivals in the closing stages of the race.

"I agree [with Sainz]. I think in Monza it's the track is helping also those fights," said Leclerc.

"But I believe the philosophy will be the same if we are under pressure of Mercedes, then I'm pretty sure that the positions will be fixed.

"If we have all the other cars quite far behind, which I hope it will be the case, then let's see what the team chooses. But at the end, we'll follow whatever we have been told."

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