Unaired Lewis Hamilton radio exchange sums up frustrations with Ferrari over Charles Leclerc at Singapore GP

Lewis Hamilton's radio communications with Ferrari became increasingly tense during the Singapore Grand Prix as he held station behind team-mate Charles Leclerc - and an unaired exchange with race engineer Carlo Santi summed it all up.

Hamilton started in third place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with the seven-time world champion on medium tyres as opposed to Charles Leclerc's softs.

Leclerc was able to pull clear of his team-mate and Hamilton pitted early to change to softs, but Leclerc stayed out and, when he pitted, emerged under a second ahead of Hamilton. From there, Hamilton was less than impressed.

'I'll back off...' - Lewis Hamilton message to Ferrari engineers

Feeling he had the pace to both overtake Leclerc and close in on race leader Max Verstappen, Hamilton repeatedly raised the prospect of being allowed to challenge Leclerc during his second stint.

Ferrari, however, did not give the signal for the two cars to fight for position, and Hamilton made his feelings clear over team radio when ignored by his engineer.

"If I can't pull away I'll let him back past," Hamilton told Santi, who simply replied with the word 'copy'.

After a short period of silence, Hamilton replied: "Alright... I'll back off."

Ferrari then opted to pit Leclerc, as the lead car, during a virtual safety car period which was enforced by Lance Stroll's stoppage.

That left Hamilton out on old tyres, which he had fitted on lap 19, compared to Leclerc's new rubber.

He subsequently reported issues with his brakes, and was subsequently told that he was several laps short of being able to pit again on the ideal strategy - by which point his team-mate had caught him up.

'The information I have...' - Ted Kravitz explains Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton strategy

"The information I have from the team, I understand, was that Lewis was ready and was going to come in [to pit]," Sky F1 pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz, before stating that Hamilton drove past the pit entry.

"The tyres were out. They were going to stack."

After the race concluded, a separate radio message was aired in which Hamilton apologised to Ferrari and took responsibility over the decision not to pit under the VSC.

"Sorry, guys. I let you down with that strategy, it was my decision. We lost valuable points. I'll try to make up for it in the next race. Great job with the pit stops," Hamilton told Santi over team radio.

Having not been told to let Hamilton through earlier in the race, Leclerc came over the team radio to tell Ferrari that they should 'not lose time' with the two cars battling.

Leclerc then overtook Hamilton into turn four by using his fresher soft tyres, with the seven-time champion subsequently dropping down to fifth after being overtaken by Kimi Antonelli and then Lando Norris.

He spent the final laps of the Grand Prix attempting to defend from Oscar Piastri, with the Australian having been 25 seconds behind Hamilton at one stage during his final stint.

Piastri completed the move into turn 16 to complete what had been a miserable Singapore Grand Prix for Hamilton, who crossed the line down in sixth - when perhaps at least a podium could and should have been possible.