Carlos Sainz has detailed how his season-long brake problems with Ferrari affected his testing at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The race winner defended third place in both sessions, but was nearly six-tenths behind in the more representative second session after being in range of team-mates Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris in the opening hour.

Sainz was caught in a major traffic jam and had to run down the exit road at Turn 16 at one point, but despite his struggles with the SF-24, the Spaniard was confident he would fight back and continue to challenge for the rest of the week.

“This year, our team had some brake problems on Friday – and it was my turn to deal with them,” Sainz explained.

“There was a lot of inconsistency with the brakes throughout FP2, especially in the cool-down and the out lap, we had a lot of problems, which didn’t help our confidence and our preparation for the weekend.

“Whenever we don’t have those problems and have clean laps, we’re pretty quick, so I’m not worried if we can finish well.

“We have a strong car to go into the fight with, and Lando is very fast, but Red Bull and Mercedes haven’t shown their strength yet.”