Here we are in the middle of the first weekend of the series of flyaway races and all sorts of developments have come to the fore even before the first wheel started to turn in qualifying. Before we get to the more relevant goings on there is more of a local announcement here in the solitary world, at this time last season upon the weekend of the Singaporean GP of 2011, life here got more populated. There was a festival, well wouldn't quite go that far, but more of a summer fair... after summer had finished but after all this is Britain and summers don't really exist anyway. But at this event there was a small game involving throwing ping pong balls into jars from a distance, with the aim of winning prizes - and oddly enough the blog did win a prize, and that prize was a small goldfish. This fish was adopted as the official blog mascot, because nobody wanted to be the personal secretary here at HQ, and now as we reach Singapore once more blog fish reaches and approximate birthday - longer than any fish in this house. Even though it is showing it's age through missing most of it's tail at the moment, but an entire year none the less.
Back to the action closer to the track, and all sorts of thoughts are emerging looking towards next season already, starting off with the provisional release of the 2013 calendar. For the most part it closely matches what we have season this season, but with one major change in the sense that the track in Valencia - that so called street track on the harbour - has been booted from the schedule. Drafted into it's place however is another street track across the Atlantic in New Jersey, seeing the layout doesn't inspire too much excitement and two races in the states after years of not having any is a little odd, but we shall see. The other developments focus on the driver market which is balanced to spiral into complete disarray hinged completely on the actions of a Mr Schumacher and what happens to Massa. When those decisions are made, it will turn into musical chairs in a hurry. Because the likes of Perez, Hulkenberg and Hamilton all have questions about which car they'll be in on the grid in Australia. But for now these things are still up in the air, so dialling things back to the present lets look at qualifying.
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| Image credits to F1Fanatic.co.uk |
The bright lights and streets of Singapore were waiting for the power and flamboyance of F1, and as always the visual spectacle of this event remains unparalleled in the sport, yes Abu Dhabi has all it's fancy buildings and glowing hotels but there is always something special about this race. Even watching the GP2 race which was run under the daylight the track was still looking impressive and a class above the other modern additions to the calendar. Through the free practice sessions the track hasn't seen many changes, just modification of the odd curb here and there, including reducing the violence of the curbs in the frankly crap chicane. Some cars were still being launched, the record being held by HRT, but the most amusing piece of information is that Jaime Alguersuari - practice co-commentator claims those 'corners' are among his favourites... that is reason enough for him not to be in a car this season really.
At the start of the session, it was the Sauber of One-Stop Perez running the initial laps because he lost time in FP3 after hitting the wall in the tunnel section. He was soon joined by other GP2 graduates Grosjean, Maldonado and Kobayashi, from this first batch of competitors it was the Venezuelan that came out on top ahead of the returning Frenchman on his come back from the race ban. At this point none of the main competitors had taken to the track, waiting in the garage for a couple of minutes. As more and more drivers did leave the pit lane, it was no surprise that drivers were having difficulties with the chicane, Perez on his first lap ignored the thing completely, if only the FIA had the same idea. Both Mercedes cars took varying degrees of avoidance along with Hamilton's McLaren.Getting a little closer to disaster was the Williams of Senna, who clipped the wall in FP2, as the Brazilian found the barriers again this time in turn 9, just enough to brush the advertising banners.
The lead position changed hands several times during the session, Maldonado's time was washed away by the likes Alonso and Rosberg before Hamilton annihilated the field to go considerably faster. Only to be joined to within 0.002s by that German Bloke who for this weekend has sparkling lights on his helmet... the ever changing designs were mad to start off with but this was taking things to a barmy level of silliness. This sorted out the battle for the drivers on the prime compound tyre. This meant the battle was on for those having to switch to the softer compound to secure promotion, which generally involves finding out which driver will join the newer teams in relegation, As normal it was the Torro Rosso drivers hogging the position but strong times at the end of the session saw Kobayashi fall into the drop zone, and for some reason the Sauber was in the pit lane and not on the track, sealing Kamui's fate. As the car had issues with oversteer, not particularly ideal with the walls being so close.
Slipping into the next session and it was the Lotus team who took to the track first lead by Kimi Raikkonen, but on the other side of the garage, things were not going quite to plan, as Grosjean got a little sideways under braking for turn 14. Frankly a little too sideways, normally when the back of the car is ahead there is usually a problem, a problem that involved colliding into the barrier. However in a car which has seemed a little fragile to impacts this year, the Lotus was able to drive away without any major damage or consequences. As Alonso took the lead the barriers gained another visitor - this time a little more significantly - almost making a habit of it as it was Bruno Senna once more in turn 21 ruining the rear suspension, knocking the Williams out of the session.
Then something odd happened, nothing was going on - normally there is a mid session break in Q3 but not in Q2 as everyone came in to change tyres for the final charge to making it into the final section, Hamilton and Vettel were safe but the others were less so. The battle for relegation was mainly surrounding Force India and Mercedes as the time started to run out, and as the track started to evolve strong times were being put in shuffling the order. Grosjean started the process moving the Lotus up to third displaced only by Webber, Di Resta also moved up the order into 5th while their team-mates were not fairing too well, being knocked out at the end of the session by the two Mercedes cars. Joining Kimi and Hulkenberg in relegation was the Torro Rosso Team, Perez and Felipe Massa, not entirely helping his hopes of hanging onto his drive while Alonso is out leading the championship.
We only had one session remaining and 10 drivers remaining, five of which took to the track at the start of the session lead by the pair of Mercedes', driving round on the prime compound which did seem rather odd. On these opening laps it was Hamilton that set another dominant time to go fastest by a comfortable margin from Button in second - one second behind. Vettel split the two McLarens to go second, as for the Mercedes team - well they just pottered round and pitted without setting a lap or intending to. A problem that has not surfaced for quite a while but the sanction still applies - one penalty point each for the two silver cars.
It was time for the final runs of the day, and Hamilton really didn't need to bother going back out again but with the speed Vettel has been showing through practice, even beating Lewis in Q1, they couldn't take the risk. The commentary team considered it to be a two horse race for pole, so it became much of a surprise when a third car got involved in the process, street circuit specialist Pastor Maldonado brought the Williams up into second place. Waves of drivers tried to challenge for the front row, but the likes of Alonso, Button and Webber all failed to make any impression. After pulling the car out of the barrier Romain Grosjean almost put it back in again more firmly, after surviving an epic slide through turn 9, staying on the power all the way through. The attention turned to the final charge from Vettel, and even he couldn't beat the Williams never mind the McLaren out front, just to add insult to injury Hamilton completed his final lap which although wasn't an improvement was still good enough for pole in it's own right.
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
At the end of the first night session of the final phase of the season there were some entertaining moments and exciting performances across the grid so here are the bonus points winners from the Singapore Qualifying session.
- 10pts - Pastor Maldonado - For breaking the Lewis/Seb battle out front to make the front row
- 8pts - Petrov/Kartthikeyan - For beating their team-mates in after traditionally being dominated
- 6pts - Romain Grosjean - Escaping putting it in the wall and a fantastic slide in the final phase
- 5pts - Lewis Hamilton - That was a dominant performance so here are some points
- 4pts - Paul Di Resta - A strong qualifying result for the Force India team
- 3pts - Bruno Senna - Three points for a hat-trick of visits to the barrier this weekend so far
- 2pts - Marussia - For making major improvements to the car, to fight on pace with Caterham
- 1pt - Blog Fish - There you go, one point for one year of service as being the blog mascot
The Penalty Points Championship
As there were no driver penalties handed out this weekend so therefore we skip ahead to the penalty points division and here we have two offerings handed out for not taking part in the final phase of qualifying and those were to the Mercedes team. Both Schumacher and Rosberg have been handed a penalty point. Elsewhere there is going to be one point for Alguersuari for his praise of the appalling chicane down in turn 10.
Looking to tomorrow
This weekend is all about the race, seeing all 24 cars glistening in the lights unleashing cascades of sparks from the skid-plates underneath the cars. Also the Mercedes front wing endplates tend provide their own sparks when bouncing across the curbs in the chicanes. All in all the spectacle of this event is unbeatable on so many levels, and tomorrow's event can often be more about luck and surviving any mayhem that is likely to occur. In all of the races here on the streets there has been at least one appearance from the safety car, even in the shortened GP2 race earlier there were two interventions, one at the start and one at the very end of the race.
Looking at the grid we have been dealt following the session several hours ago now, we have the two best friends of Maldonado and Hamilton on the front front row, which could be interesting. Additionally as with a lot of the races this season there are cars out of position, with Raikkonen and Massa outside the top ten and the potentially slower Mercedes ahead of them in 9th and 10th. To make matters even more interesting there is the other matter of Kobayashi down in 19th, here we have a fast car, with a driver who is certainly not afraid of making some risky overtaking manoeuvres. One thing that plays in favour of the Sauber team is that, they are away from the threat of Schumacher who has a record of hitting Saubers in Singapore.
The 2012 Singaporean GP is looking like being a highlight of the season, if Valencia managed to be rather good on a dodgy track soon to be booted off the face of the calendar for ever, then the far more interesting lap under the lights should be much more entertaining. With a small threat of rain in the area, the concept of rain on the streets at night is a whole new problem the series has never encountered before, and it would be very interesting to find out how it would work. So until then this is farewell from my darkened corner here in Blog HQ.
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