Normally I'd open as night descends over the circuit, but that naturally occurred before the start of the race and traditionally the darkness and floodlights can unleash some craziness. We see in the NASCAR series over in America that for their night races - also with walls in close proximity, the drivers tend to be a little more wild, but things are generally quite unpredictable to start off with. Back here - or more accurately there on the nocturnal streets - things were a little more calm and serene, at least for the first half of the race anyway. Starting off very conserved and cautious, the possible conflict between the front row drivers never quite materialised. In the few races that have been held in Singapore some constants have been build, things that are almost certain - and this time out those elements didn't change, the SLS was on the track and the race ran up and over the two hour time limit as a result of the Mercedes taking to the circuit. We were also only a few metres away from a third consecutive Schumacher/Sauber confrontation.
It has been an afternoon of deep contrasts and to painfully apply a footballing analogy it was a race of two halves - which does make me feel a little ill just muttering it through my keyboard. But although it took a while to build, after the mid-race reset things did start to change with some of the most innovative overtaking efforts of the season and technical issues starting to effect many of the contenders across the field. We also had a small sprinkling of contact to round off the event, and one driver had a problem with a loose nut, which as D.C. pointed out is never something to recommend in the humid conditions...
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| credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
There is always an air of anticipation before a street race, some of the craziest races in the world have happened when the walls threaten to punish the slightest mistakes with race ending damage - even more so now in this era of health and safety run-offs. Valencia this season serves as a great example, not as a track, but the race this year over there was surprisingly impressive considering the lap is rather naff. It's the same as the grid in Monaco on the tighter, twisting European roads in contrast to the wider faster street configurations that exist in other locations round the globe.
All that anticipation was realised when the lights were extinguished and the front two cars left the line virtually in unison. Alonso made an uncharacteristically poor start and ended up with cars running four wide behind him avoiding running over each other while all drifting towards the pit-wall, as the cars reached turn one Webber and Rosberg ran out of room and went across the run-off. Right at the front, Maldonado went in a little too deep and lost position to Vettel which in turn opened the door for Button to claim third position from the Williams. In the middle of the pack, where any contact is likely to happen the long angle shots seemed to see that Kamui brushed his endplate on the back of Massa's Ferrari in a late dive into turn one, and somewhere in the group Vitaly Petrov perhaps on the back of the slowing Ferrari with it's rear puncture.
After half a lap of running two wide the field settled down as this is the longest race of the season, no-one wanted to make any crazy early moves on the car in front. While Hamilton was building a reasonably safe gap from Vettel in second - the two main challengers from qualifying heading the field. Button was dropping Maldonado and Alonso behind him. These opening laps were bordering in on the processional and Webber decided that he'd had enough of being in the queue and opted to pit in for a newer set of tyres, pitting first out of the main contenders. This being a street circuit there was a lack of overtaking with the first pass outside of the first lap falling to Bruno Senna making up for an technical grid penalty using the DRS system to out-drag Heikki into turn 7 at the end of the DRS straight.
Webber's switch onto newer rubber acted as a signal for the other drivers to consider making their stops, Vettel came in next and dropped in behind a long train of cars - with Perez immediately in front. On fresh tyres Sebastien was easily able to pass the Sauber on his out-lap. The McLaren cars were holding out longer on the tyres at this stage of the race, even though Hamilton claimed he had a funny feeling in the tyres - something he probably should be keeping to himself. Of the two it was Lewis who pitted first as Button was closing the gap as a result of not having any 'funny feelings' rejoining safely ahead of Vettel. In the Ferrari garage Alonso also rejoined behind Perez who as per normal is still not pitting in the Sauber, after spending several laps in the wake of the Mexican, Fernando used a decent helping of KERs drive past on the way down to turn 14.
What was impressive was that no-one had made contact with the ominous walls as we approached one third race distance, but that stat was about to be altered as Timo Glock tried to enter the tunnel sideways, which didn't work out too well. But as with Grosjean in Q2 yesterday the plastic barriers didn't do too much damage to the Marussia and Timo was able to drive away without any major loss in pace. A little further up the two cars running longer - Hulkenberg and Perez pitted releasing Webber and Di Resta. Then we encountered the biggest development of the race, when Hamilton entered turn one the car emitted all kinds of terminal sounding noises, Lewis' funny feeling just became slightly less amusing as his gearbox managed to grind itself into oblivion. And sending Hamilton and his questionable feelings into an early retirement, gifting Vettel the lead.
Elsewhere in the middle of the points there was a train forming behind a Mercedes driver, although this time it wasn't Oh Schu....macher, instead Rosberg was becoming more popular with the immediate attentions of Grosjean in the Lotus. But the second silver car was also joining the battle pursued the other Lotus of Raikkonen, but no-one was able to make any impression on the car in front. As it was time for some more pit stops once more lead by Webber in the Red Bull, but a little further forward Maldonado and Alonso pitted - and left in formation. The pair dueled round the out-lap Fernando looking to the outside through turn 14 which became the inside to turn 15, and then the outside for 16, all the way through the drivers leaving enough room. Which is slightly unusual for Pastor who has spent a season hitting people and pushing them off the road so that was nice.
Just as we had finished being impressed with that battle the wall had gained another visitor this time on a more permanent basis. The car of Narain Karthikeyan had also found the barrier in the tunnel and removed the front wheel from the HRT and bringing out the inevitable safety car intervention. Several laps later of removing the damaged car and filtering the lapped cars out of the way, it was time for the restart, which Button seemed to think started a little earlier than it did, almost wiping out the back of Vettel's car when the field was in the German Bloke's control.
When the race did get underway everyone was once more well behaved and controlled, the only car encountering difficulties was the Sauber of One-Stop Perez as he lost a couple of positions half way round the lap. On the back straight past the theatres he had to go defensive to prevent Vergne taking the position - which in the end proved to be a very lucky escape, because behind the pair was Schumacher who does like to assault Saubers at this race. The Mercedes driver applied the brakes for turn 14, but not enough decelleration and in another Oh Sch...umacher moment ploughed into the car ahead, which for a defensive line was not Perez this year. The Torro Rosso of Vergne was not to lucky being wiped out by the sliding German car, and the safety car came back out again.
The second caution period forced everyone to the pits as they could make it to the end from here, it also helped out some of the drivers who had difficulties early on bringing both Massa and Senna into the points. Life was not going to plan on the other side of the Williams garage as he had to pull the car into retirement with hydraulic difficulties as we hear the radio message to Schumacher asking "What happened there?" and Michael cites confusing technical issues with the brakes not being able to avoid ramming Jean-Eric. More difficulties in the pit-lane as Vitaly Petrov's Caterham was allowed to leave with a loose nut but was recalled before entering the track.
It was another controlled restart, this time without anyone running over the back of each other or coming close but thing were going to get interesting. Felipe Mass and Senna were battling over the final two points positions where the Ferrari clearly had a significant advantage over the Williams - instead of using the standard overtaking zones Felipe decided to do something a little different. Cutting underneath Bruno out of turn 12 and running two wide across the Andersson Bridge, Senna pushed Massa into the barrier brushing bodywork with the Ferrari. Massa stayed in position and got all kinds of sideways down the other side of the crest claiming the position into the hairpin in easily the greatest pass of the day. Williams protested the incident citing that Massa took too much of the inside curb before the bridge, but the move stuck without action.
Massa was not done yet, quickly catching up to the back of Ricciardo's Torro Rosso, and this time the Brazilian got a better run through turn nine and was able to pass the Australian before the dodgy chicane at turn 10. His next target was the two Lotus drivers who were encouraged to swap positions to aid Kimi's Championship challenge meaning Grosjean was the next car in line for Felipe's charge. A second battle was brewing a little further back as Kamui Kobayashi who frankly was not having a good day was out of sequence running off the pace ahead of Webber, Hulkenberg and One-Stop Perez. It was towards the back of the train where impatience first started to shine through as Perez had a go at Nico coming off the bridge. Unlike Massa's pass this one was a little later on in the corner and therefore was not contact free. Sergio lost a wing element and Nico lost a turning vane from the sidepod but no major damage to either car. Two cars further forward Webber used the DRS to pass Kamui's Sauber, braking round the outside of turn 7. Nico Hulkenberg followed the Red Bull through the opening, but somehow there was contact between Kamui's front wing and Nico's rear tyre. Kobayashi's front wing was badly damaged and the Force India suffered a puncture taking both back to the pit lane.
Back in the Williams camp, Bruno Senna paid his fourth visit to the wall this weekend, on the exit of turn 9, only bumping a rear wheel on the plastic barriers, but the car had other problems, terminal problems causing another retirement for the team. At this point the race organisers had given up on completing the full race distance of 61 laps and started the timed countdown to the conclusion of the race, with Vettel and Button tracing a comfortable pace out front with Alonso completing the podium enhancing his championship position. A couple of battles had broken off through the field - Massa stuck behind Grosjean and Webber had found the back of his countryman Ricciardo in the remaining Torro Rosso to be a little too wide. Mechanical attrition and Schumacher had thinned the field diluting the race towards the end as the timer counted down.
Vettel crossed the line with one minute remaining to signify the final lap, a lap just to bring the car home for his second win of the season and helping him close slightly in on Alonso. Button finished the race on the podium, after the other McLaren fell out of the race earlier on in the first half, while the Ferrari of Fernando completed the podium scoring yet more points to limit Vettel's gain. In fourth position finished Paul Di Resta for his best ever finish for Force India. Rosberg managed to finish fifth without seemingly doing anything, probably swept up the grid due to attrition and the safety cars. The two Lotus cars came home in 6th and 7th headed by Raikkonen retaining 3rd place in the championship, Massa's manic final charge brought him up into 8th ahead of the pair of Australians Ricciardo ahead of Webber. One thing that is worth noticing two spots further back was Timo Glock - after bouncing off the wall defeated all of the newer teams to record the highest finish for any of the three lower division squads.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
Today was the longest race of the season, in terms of green-flag running time - discounting the extended red flag break in Malaysia for the rain storm, failing to complete all of the 61 laps allocated, falling 2 short of the total. In a race of this length drivers have periods of greatness before fading through tyre degradation or having runs and strategies hampered by the safety car interventions. But nonetheless points need to be awarded and they are as follows.
- 25pts - Timo Glock - For defeating all of the newer cars after bouncing off the walls in the tunnel, knocking the toe out and to take 10th in the constructors for the team, all in all good day
- 18pts - Felipe Massa - That was a brilliant pass and recovery from an early race puncture
- 15pts - Paul Di Resta - Another fourth place for Force India - one per driver now very strong race
- 12pts - Jenson Button - Firstly for missing the Red Bull on the restart but also for a strong race
- 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - After Lewis retired it was a fairly dominant performance
- 8pts - Lewis Hamilton - Should have been another win, and until things went wrong a strong drive
- 6pts - Pastor Maldonado - Another unlucky retirment, but didn't anyone and raced well with Fernando and at the start
- 4pts - Nico Rosberg - For completing the race and scoring decent point mainly under the radar, except when holding up Grosjean
- 2pts - Fernando Alonso - Forever managing to score points and finish well, looking good for his championship
- 1pt - David Coulthard - For the joke regarding Petrov and the loose nut problem
The Penalties Championship
In a street race there generally is a high chance of earning penalties from the stewards and several investigations were carried out during the race including cars running wide on the opening lap, and Massa's awesome pass on Senna but only two official penalties were delivered.
- Michael Schumacher - 10 place grid drop - For assaulting Vergne in the braking area for turn 14, missing a third year of consecutive Sauber contact by a couple of metres. As the team counldn't prove there was a technical reason for his crash.
- Mark Webber - 20s time penalty - For passing Kamui Kobayashi round the outside of turn seven off the circuit on the other side of the white line.
The Penalty Points Championship
Today the officials didn't have too much to officiate on with only four investigations and for the most part the drivers were well behaved, probably still under supervision from the officials since the start-line crash in Spa all those weeks ago now. But this week there is one thing that does need handing a penalty point, and those are the stewards themselves, at times being unnecessarily pedantic especially this weekend with the proliferation of white lines offering racing surfaces on both side. At times I can agree that cutting down on drivers abusing the limits of the track is a good idea, but in a racing situation there are more factors to consider. When a driver is forced off the track then some form of common sense should be introduced, but I guess that if that kettle of worms is open all sorts of weird and crazy decisions will be made. But on this day I feel like giving them a point and because I make the rules here on a very arbitrary basis the point will stick.
Looking Ahead to Japan
Just like Spa or a pre-arena Silverstone, Suzuka is a fantastic drivers circuit and running the laps in the simulator when composing the video is much more of a pleasure than it is at some of the other layouts - yes Valencia I am pointing a finger at you as you are booted in to exile provisionally for next year. The fantastic sweeping curves of the opening sector leading into the excellent pair of degner corners underneath the cross-over. Suzuka is one of the most exciting laps of the season situated in one of the most exciting nations which is always a great combination. The southern region of Japan is not immune to a bit of rain, in fact it can rain quite a lot - drowning out the 2010 qualifying session completely resulting for a very long night at blog HQ - not that blog HQ existed back then.
There is only one problem with a track like Suzuka, its immense flow and rhythm can restrict quality of the racing as there aero dependence hampers overtaking in the same way that the tight restrictive confines of a street track do. All of the long straights lead into fast corners with minimal braking zones, especially the full speed 130R corner at the end of the cross-over on the figure of eight lap. There have been some fantastic races at Suzuka and is a dramatic improvement over Fuji which hosted the race for two races in 08/09 - back in 05 Raikkonen made some epic passes including round the outside of Fisichella in a Renault (before Squadron status) for the lead in turn one. So with the championship battle intensifying with three main contenders remaining: Alonso from Vettel and Kimi a little further behind, with an outside chance for Hamilton in 4th to claim it. This season is building to something impressive, and the next stop is one of the most impressive laps of them all, so until then this is farewell from the blog.
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