Allow me to explain why most comments you read about the Singapore start are wrong...

Hi, I'm back.

I had to jump in, for what it's worth, to explain why the response to the first lap crash at the Singapore GP was an even bigger clusterfuck than the clusterfuck itself.

I think peak bullshit came when the collective British and Dutch twitter contingent clutched their pearls after Ferrari put out a tweet containing a simple, if not fully grammatical, statement of fact:

VER took #Kimi7 out and then he went to #Seb5 #SingaporeGP

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 17, 2017

Yup, Max did bump into Kimi who then hit Vettel.   That is how the incident played out, mechanically.   Heavens forbid anyone describe the sequence of events.

What's more interesting is the WHY it happened.   And here, the Spanish fans, pining for Alonso blamed Vettel,  Italian Kimi haters blamed the Finn, the British mostly remarked on Hamilton's skill at being on the other side of the track while tisking at Vettel's "Schumi chop",  a move Lewis successfully pulled off at Monza two weeks ago.  The Dutch? They mostly showed class by blaming Italians for having better food that they ever will.  And Vettel fans, they pretty much blamed Max.

In short,  everyone just saw their bias. Is it worth it to assign blame?  Sure, but it was a racing incident firmly in the "shit happens when you point a bunch of cars into a corner you all have to get to first to win" bucket.

Two points, before we start

1) on a wet track, the "dirty" side has more grip.
2) Singapore, like Monaco, is a track you where, to win,  you have to lead out of the first corner.   Even more so in the rain.

OK so, to the start.  Vettel on the "clean" side has a poorer start than Verstappen and Raikkonen on the "dirty" side.  In fact everyone but Bottas has a great start on track left. Look at Alonso, Wow!





Verstappen, at the start, is pointing towards the right, hoping no doubt to cut off the Ferrari.

Vettel, for his part does what any driver in his situation would have done and is, by the rules, allowed to do, move to cover.






At this point Max realizes Kimi smoked him and and turns left to block him.   Notice how much room there is between Max and Seb,  the notion the Dutchman changed direction because of Vettel is not very likely.

Vettel cannot see the other Ferrari so it's plausible he though Max was going for the inside and increases the angle to cover more.

A-HA! you say...  Wrong.

That Vettel actually timed the "chop" on Max to perfection is demonstrated by him not hitting the Red Bull at any time.   By millimeters, yes but fully ahead of the blue car when Kimi bangs into him.

















Of all three, the one who is certainly blameless is Raikkonen, you can look at the clip and you can plainly see he is 100% straight up until the contact.

Vettel played a legal. but risky game and paid for it, no doubt. But you don't win a championship against Lewis and Mercedes by playing it safe,  Not in F1 and not on a track where you have to lead from the start to win. (unless you have Nelson Piquet jr.)

Max, as he has been known to do in the past, changed plans in the middle of something and shifted his attention from Vettel to Raikkonen.    He's aggressive and he has a lot to prove after the terrible season he's had so far.  That is part of his attraction but also something he has not quite worked out (see Hungary).

More interesting might be speculating if Vettel would have run into Raikkonen, had the contact not happened.   That might have been a possibility but, that's also science fiction and in the end, the stewards made the only possible call:

"Shit happens".

Watch Ferrari crew engage in appalling, thug-like behavior ....

Noted British scarf wearing photographer Darren Heath was first to sound the alarm:

Appalling thug-like behaviour by @ScuderiaFerrari mechanics post #Vettel win. #Hooligans #F1Singapore pic.twitter.com/u1MHNK2FLW

— Darren Heath (@F1Photographer) September 20, 2015

Wow  what could have happened here....  the FIA was alerted,  letters were sent, punishment promised.

Turns out, after pulling off the biggest upset of the 2015 Formula 1 season so far, Ferrari's mechanics were a bit too enthusiastic and pushed aside some barriers and some photographers in their  desire to share in the victory celebrations.

Check out the  dastardly deeds of these "thugs".   Can you IMAGINE?   Pushing aside some of the 50 or so snappers all trying to shoot the same picture?  The nerve of these hooligan Ferrari mechanics and techs daring to get in the way, possibly ruining a certain Pulitzer prize moment.

Heath, who is a fantastic photographer of cars but whose personal work off the track is as dull, derivative and empty as his soul must be,  has been bitching about Ferrari since the first race this season in Australia.

Apparently Ferrari security had dared deny him access to the private VIP areas and he took it personally calling Ferrari management a bunch of "tobacco peddling James Bond villains".  

Clearly he's yet to get over that slight.

Thug like?  Please Darren...  Scarf don't make you Natchway.

Whiners like Heath are but one of the reasons so many think life has been sucked out of F1.    Another example?  Flag-gate.

Vettel wanted to bring a yellow Scuderia flag to wave on the podium but no,  you 'd think he threatened to brandish an AK47.

Check out how freaked out FIA/FOM personnel is.

Really F1?

#facepalm

Hamilton takes advantage of Rosberg's car failure, it's hammer time in Singapore.

Lewis Hamilton scored maximum points at Singapore with a victory that once again highlighted the crushing advantage Mercedes have over the competition this year.

Hamilton did not put a foot wrong and now leads the Championship going into the Japanese GP,  Rosberg scored no points and is now 3 behind.

There was a race in Singapore but it was all behind Lewis.  Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso had a decent scrap for the remaining podium spots which was decided when Ferrari got slightly caught out by the Safety Car, He had been ahead of the two Red Bulls but emerged behind on the same tires after the stop.

It might have been a closer race had the drivers been able actually race with each other rather than just try to save tires and get to the end.    Mark Webber, racing at Circuit of the Americas in the WEC,  was quoted yesterday:


“There’s no contest there, Michelin is a real racing tire, Pirelli was for show business in Formula one.  These are real racing tires so it’s a tire which all the drivers can enjoy...”


But it is what it is, I guess.

As predicted, the FIA's ban, half ban, on radio communications was made a joke today with all sorts of messages being sent back and forth from all teams.  More confusion.

Of note, Maldonado did not crash though he did drive off with a wheel gun still attached once.

Also, Jean Eric Vergne finished 6th despite being given not one but two 5 second penalties!   Perhaps Toro Rosso needs to arrange to have the FIA penalize JEV every race!

Now on to Suzuka and the momentum is all in Hamilton's corner again.   If we're lucky we'll finally see a straight up,  on track battle between the two Mercedes.

 It's been a while now.

Don't miss the Singapore GP!

What 0.007/sec looks like (via SkySportsF1)

Singapore qualifying was the closest so far this season, not just for the 7/1000th of a second between Hamilton and Rosberg but the top 5 are all in the same 2.5/10th, the top 9 in the same 6/10th.

Has the competition caught up to Mercedes?    It's more likely the very specific characteristics of the Singapore circuit played a role.    If you accept Mercedes' big engine advantage is due to their superior MGU-H (turbo) component then it might be that all those short segments make it less of a factor.

In any case, today's  exciting qualifying hint at a very interesting race tomorrow.   The only shame that Kimi Raikkonen did not get a chance to show his speed in Q3 because of yet another problem on his Ferrari.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:46.921	1:46.287	1:45.681	17
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:47.244	1:45.825	1:45.688	19
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:47.488	1:46.493	1:45.854	12
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:47.476	1:46.586	1:45.902	15
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:46.889	1:46.328	1:45.907	16
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:47.615	1:46.472	1:46.000	20
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.685	1:46.359	1:46.170	14
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:47.196	1:46.622	1:46.187	18
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:47.976	1:46.700	1:46.250	18
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:47.656	1:46.926	1:47.362	21
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:47.161	1:46.943		12
12	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:47.407	1:46.989		14
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:47.370	1:47.308		13
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:47.970	1:47.333		9
15	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.143	1:47.575		13
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:47.862	1:47.812		14
17	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.324			6
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:49.063			8
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:49.440			7
20	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:50.405			8
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:50.473			7
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:52.287			5

@AussieGrit...

Mark Webber called out on Twitter  Derek Warwick, one of the stewards in Singapore who handed him and Alonso reprimands for the taxi ride.
While in some sense the stewards hands were tied by regulations which call for an automatic 10 grid spot penalty after 3 reprimands  (the Grosjean rule, I guess),  common sense says you don't penalize sportsmen for a sporting act at a sporting event.

Looks like even one of the Singapore stewards has done it...#C'estlavie pic.twitter.com/TeoJwTM9WN
— Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) September 24, 2013

Well done FIA... Webber hit with ridiculous penalty

The FIA handed official reprimands to both Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber after the race in Singapore.

Why?  Because Alonso stopped to give Webber a lift after the australian's engine gave up the ghost on the last lap and Webber went onto the track without permission from the marshals.

For Webber, this being his third reprimand of the season, it means an automatic ten spot penalty in Korea in two weeks.

Well played FIA,  well played.  Perhaps fans are booing the wrong person.

Comparing Vettel and Rosberg: What does 0.092 of a second look like?

It was too close for comfort in Singapore for Red Bull who decided to save an unused set of option tires for the race.  Nico Rosberg came very, very close to nipping the top spot from Vettel.

I went to the onboard and lined up the two runs, which were just 0.091 of a second apart and it's quite interesting to see the different characteristics between the cars and the two drivers side by side.

I encourage you to stop the clip in various places and compare.  You will find Vettel almost always is braking later and carries less speed into the apex than Rosberg  but is consistently faster from mid corner on.

The Mercedes is quite a bit quicker in a straight line 298 km/h vs 292 for the Red Bull,  but Vettel knows how to take advantage of the extra downforce the RB9 is producing and, on those short straights, his advantage in speed will pay off if he's ahead.     Were he to be behind after the first corner, the deficit in top speed will make it hard for him to pass.

Will it be over in one corner tomorrow, another Vettel domination?  I'm afraid it's quite likely, especially with Seb holding that extra set of brand new options in hand.  One unknown (to us), is the state of his gearbox if it's the same one he was nursing at Monza.

Check the video after the break.

2012 Singapore GP Executive Summary

Singapore may look terrific on TV, what with F1 to be floated on the local stock exchange you won't hear anything but gushing accolades from the motoring press depending on paddock passes but, as far as racing, it can only be justified as a torture test for drivers. I can't remember the last time I've seen the guys look so spent after a race, and these are guys in amazing shape.

The big story of the race was Hamilton's gearbox failure. We discussed it before, you can decide if the hit against the wall in qualifying was a factor. In any case it's yet another time this year Hamilton has been let down by Mclaren.

There are still 150 points in play in the championship, the math boils down to Alonso not having the luxury to finish behind Vettel any more.  Ferrari was nowhere near Red Bull and Mclaren and Fernando will have to count on the Hamilton and Button taking some of those 150 points away from Vettel while Ferrari figures out how to achieve the right temperature delta between front and rear tires, apparently the key to Mclaren's speed lately.

There were penalties handed out to Schumacher, Webber, and Senna . Not sure what to say about Schumacher other than , another senior moment?

Massa, what a save! Ferrari needs more, but who? you can't kick Massa out for a Hulkenberg or a Kovalainen if you can't get a Perez...

Hamilton and the wall.

In the previous piece we wondered if Hamilton glancing the wall on the final flying lap in qualifying might come into play in the race.   So far there is no word from Mclaren but one has got to think there is a good chance it might have had an effect on the Mclaren gearbox.

Hard to say without knowing the precise timing of events but you'd the team would have told Hamilton to abort his lap as he had pole in the bag (by a mile).  On Sunday, someone decided to gamble and not incur a 5 spot penalty for swapping the gearbox, Mclaren easily had the speed but reliability will win this championship.

Another notable failure was Schumacher's.  Mental or mechanical? Schumacher said the latter * but the "What the hell was that?" radio transmission from Ross said "senior moment"....

Photo: Thanassi360/Flickr

*Schumacher has since fessed up and was handed a 10 spot penalty for Suzuka.

Singapore GP Qualifying: Hamilton hammers, Vettel peaks too soon.

It's going to be a very interesting first lap tomorrow what with old friends Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado sharing the first row.  Maldonado knows the stewards eyes will be on him but the margin of error here at Singapore is nothing.   Pass the popcorn.

Lurking behind is the other kid under surveillance, Romain Grosjean,  call him "Lucky Luke" after stuffing his Lotus into the tire barriers in Q2 without any apparent damage.  Speaking of hitting the wall, in Q3 Hamilton, apparently not content having essentially pulverized the field was on a final flier when he touched the wall with his right rear,   will there be an issue in the race?

Vettel could not match his Q2 pace in Q3, this after being the fastest guy in every practice session.  His Q2 time would have put him on the front row ahead of Maldonado and his miracle  lap but Sebastian made a mistake on his final attempt.

Alonso is a whole second down but can afford to be,  for Ferrari it will be a question of reliability, consistent race pace and tire wear.  If he gets on the podium, it's a win.   Unfortunately Alonso has to do all the work alone,  Massa failed to make Q3,   Barring a miracle in the race this will be his last Singapore GP.

Raikkonen needed more ice cream.

This will be a race of strategy,  safety cars are likely and last year it was a 3 or 4 stop race.   Pass more popcorn.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m46.362s           
 2.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m46.804s  + 0.442  
 3.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m46.905s  + 0.543  
 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m46.939s  + 0.577  
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m47.216s  + 0.854  
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m47.241s  + 0.879  
 7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m47.475s  + 1.113  
 8.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m47.788s  + 1.426  
 9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time              
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             no time              
Q2 cut-off time: 1m47.943s                                   Gap **
11.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m47.975s  + 1.310
12.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m48.261s  + 1.596
13.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m48.344s  + 1.679
14.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m48.505s  + 1.840
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m48.774s  + 2.109
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m48.849s  + 2.184
17.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     no time
Q1 cut-off time: 1m49.809s                                    Gap *
18.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m49.933s  + 2.245
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m50.846s  + 3.158
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m51.137s  + 3.449
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m51.370s  + 3.682
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m51.762s  + 4.074
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m52.372s  + 4.684
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m53.355s  + 5.667
107% time: 1m55.226s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

2011 Singapore GP

Sebastian Vettel controlled and dominated the week end once again. He is 9 for 14 this season, enough said.

Three points about the 2011 Singapore GP

Safety car:
Brilliant people work in Formula 1, nobody can figure out how to sort out the safety car rules properly? Lapped cars should go around. And Formula1 drivers can't figure out you should stick close to the safety car?
The restart in Singapore was a joke, with Vettel able to get over a five second lead by the time they crossed the release line! Race control seemed to be allergic to blue flags in Singapore.

Hamilton:
Should he have been given a penalty? Well, by the letter of the rules, he certainly did cause an avoidable accident, there is no question there. Had Massa not gotten a puncture he would not have gotten penalized I would rather he had not been penalized than have to hear all the bellyaching about it.
What about Schumacher, the Ham brigade might protest, Hamilton gets penalized only because he's Hamilton... In Schumacher's case he put himself out and Perez was able to continue.

What's amazing is that Hamilton would make such a rookie mistake, Massa had out braked him into that corner and was fully ahead, Hamilton just turned in too early. He certainly needs to sort his mental game. He should ask Fernando some advice on how to keep cool and get the best out of what he has under him at the moment.

The track:
Looks cool under the lights and I'm sure journalist love to go there but man, Formula 1, concrete barriers and those awful curb chicanes don't mix.

Highlights after the jump

The Lewis and Felipe Show.

This will be "the incident" the 2011 Singapore GP will be remembered for. In the end it's racing and frankly neither one of these two is the sharpest pencil in the F1 box at the moment. Hamilton was pretty shameful bitching at his team for the qualifying mistake and then declaring he does not want to be lame like Barrichello (Ok that was kind of funny). You can't do that, not when you are going to have a start like that and then make a mistake like he did with Massa. Note that that is not the first time Massa does something like that, a few years back when he bumped with Alonso they had words after the race, or more precisely Massa went at it, Alonso just smiled and brushed it off. Then again Alonso won that race. Lewis instead threw a hissy fit. Oh well, at least he lucked out with Grandpa Schumi's crash and ended up in the points after all. Drivers of the race: Vettel for being an alien and, again, Jenson Button for being in a state of grace right now. I think that really is what's driving Hamilton off the deep end: he will enter 2012 as a de facto #2 at Mclaren in many people's eyes .

Eventful practice in Singapore

Curbs and wall... .

War of Nerves: Fernando Alonso Wins in Singapore

(Photo: RichSeow)

Fernando won another battle in Singapore but is he also winning a larger, psychological war?
Certainly he took the fight to Red Bull and Mclaren all week end, being very aggressive even in practice while playing the underdog with the press. He repeated that it's the leaders who are under pressure not to make mistakes.

I wonder if his first victim was not Lewis Hamilton, I have never heard him sounding so depressed and defeatist as he was after his retirement. Interviewed, Lewis really sounded like he meant it when he despaired about his chances in the championship and somewhat melodramatically added a wish for Button's success. Snap out of it dude! Hamilton is only 21 points out of the lead with 100 still in play, anything can happen.

So he had a couple of bad races, big deal. Alonso was in much worse shape, with everyone giving him grief about his mistakes, he kept his head down, his optimism up and his mouth shut and look what happened...

As far as the incident with Webber, I'll be interested in your comments. I saw it as a racing incident. Watching the replays, Hamilton will wish he had given a few extra inches to Webber as Kubica did when he pulled off the same move on Sutil, in the same corner. There was no absolute need to shut the door like that as the following turn was a right.

Lewis' explanation that he did not know Webber would be there doesn't really cut it, he really should have figured Webber, who would not even yield for his team mate, would very much "be there". Did Hamilton really think Webber would be a pushover like Button was at the start, when he had easilly passed Lewis only to back down under braking and getting passed on the outside? I don't think so.

In the end it was the two championship championship leaders fighting for supremacy on track, what more can anyone want?



Webber was very lucky, not just that his suspension did not break and his tire did not burst but that the Red Bull strategy risk paid off thanks to a second Safety Car period. Third after being uncompetitive for most of the week end is very good for him. Meanwhile with Vettel Red Bull had its hand forced by Ferrari when they pitted on the same lap as Alonso. Vettel also made an error in his pit stop when he tried to pull out in second gear and almost stalled.

Four to go, five still in play, the story line of the 2010 championship is getting better and better, I think the winner will need to be not just fast but cool as a cucumber.


if it's slow, let it load...
end of post

Alonso cracks open a Red Bull

Maybe Fernando Alonso figures Vettel does not handle pressure and maybe that is why he dogged Vettel throughout Q1 and 2 today in Singapore, almost taunting the Red Bull driver to best his times over and over throughout the week end. Vettel fought back but when it really counted, Seb. could not deliver.

Afterwards, Vettel blamed traffic, more than his own driving errors for the missed pole and could not resist taking a swing at Alonso in the press conference when he referenced the 2008 race ( to the delight of the many Fernando haters in the press core). I'm not sure Fernando is the type to be rattled by that sort of thing.

Webber was a bit lackluster but the good news is that all five title contenders are once again all there, clustered together, first through fifth on the grid. Tomorrow should be a first lap not to be missed.

It will be interesting once more to see who plays it safe and who "goes for it" in terms of the championship.
Vettel pretty much has to attack, He's expected to win. If he gets past Alonso in the first lap then he will be gone but how is he at passing?
Button and Alonso are, in my view, the ones in the best place psychologically in terms of pressure. In the popular view, they are considered the outsiders among the five.

Hamilton has been on a bit of a downward slide after losing the championship lead in Monza, I'm sure he will attack with all he's got. Webber is faced with this season being his only chance to be Champion and will have to administer his lead without making stupid errors. Not easy, even for a cool character like him, on a bumpy street track with a car eating chicane.

Here is Alonso's pole lap (with German commentary!)

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2         Q3
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:46.541  1:45.809   1:45.390
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:46.960  1:45.561   1:45.457
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.296  1:46.042   1:45.571
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.032  1:46.490   1:45.944
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:47.088  1:45.908   1:45.977
 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:48.183  1:47.019   1:46.236
 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:48.554  1:46.783   1:46.443
 8.  Kubica         Renault                1:47.657  1:46.949   1:46.593
 9.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:48.425  1:47.160   1:46.702
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.908  1:47.599   1:47.884
11.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:48.127  1:47.666
12.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:47.984  1:47.674
13.  Petrov         Renault                1:48.906  1:48.165
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:49.063  1:48.502
15.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.696  1:48.557
16.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:48.496  1:48.899
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:48.988  1:48.961
18.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:50.721
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:50.915
20.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:51.107
21.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:51.641
22.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth           1:52.946
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:54.174
24.  Massa          Ferrari

All Timing Unofficial

end of post

Flex and that silly chicane!

I thought the splitter was not supposed to be flexible... also interesting is how much the ride height changes at speed. I suppose it's because of the need for a soft setup to deal with that dumb, dumb chicane? Check it out after the jump...

Singapore Rewind...

September 28, 2009

"...For me the most entertaining part of the week end was the podium press conference. Fernando Alonso literally stunned the whole of the F1 press into silence by dedicating his result to "Flavio watching at home". Dependent on the FIA for their access most new sites did not know how to comment last night. This morning the party line is along the lines of "Oh that means he's going to Ferrari"...you don't say.

Aside from the stunning news the FIA did not manage to cancel Flavio's Formula 1 pay-per-view subscription, that was as big a public razberry to Max Mosley as I've ever seen and good show of Alonso's character. He and Mark Webber proved to be real men, not tempted to feign moral outrage. Don't be afraid Mosley is going to revoke your superlicence, Alonso is saying, just imagine him in the nude sipping tea with the hookers. In a sport where a team is deemed "too big to fail", Alonso just asked the FIA to try him. Let's see your moral outrage now!

Fernando is right of course, he thanked the team and he thanked Briatore who is the reason Renault is and, paradoxically now, will stay in F1. Briatore is also responsible for the deals that brought Alonso to Ferrari and likey, Kubica to Renault, all good things for Formula 1...."

SIngapore 2009


end of post

Singapore GP: big mistakes and one surprise

All lit up, Singapore may look good on TV but, like Monaco minus the tradition, it's a horrible place to hold a modern Formula 1 race. On a street circuit where most corners are 2nd gear you have to wonder if the reason nobody bothered to clean the track was in the hope more cars would crash and give the race some excitement. That plan did not work, there were some incidents, but one was caused by brake failure and the other by brain failure...

More after the jump

Hamilton had a relatively easy time from the front, his race having effectively being won on Saturday when Rubens Barrichello made a mistake and tagged the wall in the crucial last minutes of qualifying. This placed the heavier fueled Mclaren ahead of the lighter Vettel and Rosberg, both on fliers when the session was stopped.

All irrelevant though, in the race Hamilton made no mistakes. Vettel and Rosberg made dumb ones and threw away their podium spots. That Rosberg, with one of the fastest cars of the field, was so hopelessly stuck behind the likes of Trulli after serving his penalty was clear indication of how hopeless the Singapore track is.

Barrichello made a mistake on Sunday as well when he stalled during his second pit stop and allowed Button to pass him. Now, rather than closing the gap to Jenson Button, the Brazilian lost ground. With 30 points still in play and a 15 point lead Button can afford to keep coasting, Prost like, to his championship.

I think the Sutil move should be commented by Paul Tracy...

For me the most entertainin part of the week end was the podium press conference. Fernando Alonso literally stunned the whole of the F1 press into silence by dedicating his result to "Flavio watching at home". Dependent on the FIA for their access most new sites did not know how to comment last night. This morning the party line is along the lines of "Oh that means he's going to Ferrari"...you don't say.

Aside from the stunning news the FIA did not manage to cancel Flavio's Formula 1 pay-per-view subscription, that was as big a public razberry to Max Mosley as I've ever seen and good show of Alonso's character. He and Mark Webber proved to be real men, not tempted to feign moral outrage. Don't be afraid Mosley is going to revoke your superlicence, Alonso is saying, just imagine him in the nude sipping tea with the hookers. In a sport where a team is deemed "too big to fail", Alonso just asked the FIA to try him. Let's see your moral outrage now!

Fernando is right of course, he thanked the team and he thanked Briatore who is the reason Renault is and, paradoxically now, will stay in F1. Briatore is also responsible for the deals that brought Alonso to Ferrari and likey, Kubica to Renault, all good things for Formula 1.

On a final aside, maybe our UK readers can clear up the cultural differences but, here in the US referring to Lewis Hamilton as "the boy", as this article in the Times does, would have some unpleasant connotations...

Axis of Singapore

Odd qualifying session and I'm sure that no matter what happens tomorrow people will inevitably feel someone put it in the wall intentionally!

I mean, Rubens was comfortably ahead of Button so, of course he simulated a crash....right? It has to be the case....

I kid, Rubens just locked up, turned in late, ended up in the dust and understeered into the wall. Brawns aside, we saw much more oversteer than understeer on track.

Speaking of oversteer, Alonso made me smile: so much of the talk in the Piquet affair, repeated all over the internet and brought up at the sentencing cabal, was based on his telemetry that showed how Piquet buried the throttle once he started getting wheelspin, supposedly proof definite of his intentions. Alonso was doing just that all day, on every turn, check put the very start of the clip below, enjoy it.

Tomorrow should be interesting.

Speed missed Ruben's crash, check after the jump if you want to see it and read the qualifying results.








Barrichello had to change his gearbox so he will have a 5 place grid penalty and start 10th

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:46.977  1:46.657  1:47.891
2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:47.541  1:46.362  1:48.204
3.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:47.390  1:46.197  1:48.348
4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:47.646  1:46.328  1:48.722
5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:47.397  1:46.787  1:48.828
6.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:47.757  1:46.767  1:49.054
7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:47.770  1:46.707  1:49.180
8.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:47.347  1:46.832  1:49.307
9.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:47.615  1:46.813  1:49.514
10.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:47.542  1:46.842  1:49.778
11.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:47.637  1:47.013
12.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:47.180  1:47.141
13.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:47.293  1:47.177
14.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:47.677  1:47.369
15.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:47.690  1:47.413
16.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:48.231
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:48.340
18.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:48.350
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:48.544
20.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:48.792

All Timing Unofficial

Drivers react to the Renault-Piquet affair.

Robert Kubica: "In the end the truly guilty got away with it"

Giancarlo Fisichella: " Immunity for Piquet was not right and the penalty for Briatore excessive"

Jarno Trulli: "Briatore knows little or nothing about strategy, it's weird that he would be the one who paid the highest price"

Mark Webber: "I'm saddened because I cannot imagine another manager I would be as comfortable with"

More supportive of Piquet was Nico Rosberg " In the end Piquet helped the FIA to get rid of people who should not have been in Formula 1."

Kimi Raikkonen, about Piquet: "it's hard to come back after something like that" and about Briatore: "That's the price you pay when you do these things"

Fernando Alonso, not surprising, "It's time to put the scandal behind us"

Oh yeah and Kimi keeps repeating he has a Ferrari contract for 2010 but he also apparently has a Mclaren one in his back pocket.

And more rumors.... USF1 project in trouble, they are looking for Toyota engines which means Kazuki Nakajima....

(mediaset)