'We are struggling massively' – Leclerc left frustrated by Ferrari's lack of pace in Singapore

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc admits that "we are struggling massively with the car" after a lacklustre weekend in the Singapore Grand Prix for himself and team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The Scuderia were off the pace of the leading runners in Sunday's race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with Leclerc taking a lonely sixth, some 46s behind race winner George Russell.

Leclerc has now failed to reach the podium in the last five races, his most recent rostrum coming at the Belgium GP, and the Monegasque admits that Mercedes and Red Bull have taken noticeable steps forward over recent races.

"It's tough, it's very tough. We are not strong at the moment and we are struggling massively with the car. It's not easy," said Leclerc.

"I wish I could say that I'm positive for the rest of the season, I don't think there's anything in the car that proves to me that we are going to do a step forward.

"I think this is the reality of our situation at the moment. I don't quite know how to turn that situation around because we don't have new parts or anything coming to the car.

"We did steps forward [at the start of the season] but the others did as well so the gap stayed kind of the same and then Red Bull kind of found two steps in a season.

"First half and then in Monza more recently where they did a really big step forward, and now Mercedes seems to have done this step forward and we are the only one that didn't find that solution."

Hamilton endured an even more frustrating Sunday in Singapore, having made a second late pit stop for soft tyres which seemed like it might pay dividends as he passed Leclerc and was closing on Kimi Antonelli for fifth.

But the seven-time World Champion suffered a brake issue in the final few laps, forcing him to drop his pace dramatically as he slumped to seventh before a post-race penalty for cutting the track on several occasions relegated him to P8.

"I feel pain for all the team from catering to marketing, to the guys in the garage and engineers who show up every weekend, and they really do give absolutely everything but the car we have is unfortunately not of the level of the guys ahead of us," he said.

"Particularly as they've had some upgrades and we can't match them. We're on a knife-edge trying to get as close as we can."