Round 13: Singapore - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well we now ease ourselves away from the bright lights of Singapore, as the race came to a conclusion many, many hours ago now. As it has been for a while another show of unstoppable domination was on the cards for all of the 61 laps on the street circuit - it is starting to look despondently ominous for the remainder of the season. Singapore wasn't even considered to be the strongest of tracks for the Red Bull car to start off with, but neither was Monza or Spa... frighteningly both Korea and Japan in the coming races have been. If the pace is this unbeatable on weaker tracks then there is no hope when we go to a venue which is typically dominated by a German bloke in an excessively fast blue car. A car which has become so fast in relation to the rest of the field that the entire trackside population seem to be very resentful of our repeat winner. It does seem rather odd, it wasn't all that long ago when Schumacher could win races in reverse such was that phase of dominance and in that era we didn't have this level of animosity for the German. There are far bigger problems with the sport worth complaining about than the fact that one chap is doing a fairly decent job, unopposed on a regular basis.

As for the race itself it was an improvement on the previous two races - both of which also featured an unchallenged race for the lead - because the mid-field battle proved to be interesting in the second half of the race. After Singapore continued it's 100% record of providing safety car interruptions something that's hasn't really happened this season, with the exception of Monaco, people have been far too well behaved. Likely spending too much time complaining to spend knocking each other into the barriers. Once upon a time as soon as cars went two wide on a street track, at least one of them was going to come out of the equation missing a wheel or two. Today there was none of that sort of business, the race even concluded with an act of friendliness and comradery between rivals, but the stewards being the way they are cracked down on that sort of thing.

The Race

The day started with a flotilla of racing drivers fleeing from Martin Brundle on the grid - can't say I blame them all - and SKY were bordering on obsessive as soon as David Beckham wandered anywhere near a camera... This is not football, no-one cares about those overpaid fools, the 'value' of the players on a major team would fund the entire expenses of a top F1 team. Hell, a single player can cover the costs of Force India or Sauber including employing the staff. If Vettel's new 'fan' club want to boo something - go and boo that.

At the very start of the race the hopes of the entire world were raised when Rosberg beat Vettel down to turn one... Unfortunately the Mercedes went ever so slightly wide on the exit opening the door once more for Vettel to retake the lead - and once more, he was never seen of again. While everyone was watching all hope sink away in the face of yet more dominance Alonso was left alone on the outside line and went from 7th to 3rd in one corner. The other Ferrari of the now fired Massa was racing Hamilton, a battle that concluded down at the end of the back straight into turn 7, the pair have made contact here before - in 2011 when they stopped being friends. This time around Hamilton made the pass... but he was over the other side of the white line, an offence which has become a major crime at the moment and he was ordered to give the place back. At least this time the officials were giving fair warning before throwing the book at someone.

For a while it became a game of patience Vettel had vanished off to the count of over 6 seconds... by lap three and it wasn't getting any better for the rest of the field. So we had to wait for the DRS to be activated before anything happened, with the exception of Raikkonen passing Di Resta on the exit of the final corner. Turns out that back pain seems to have magically disappeared - and Kimi followed that up with a pass on Esteban Gutierrez on the outside of turn seven, without running off track and being shouted at by the powers that be. In this early phase of the race it was only Raikkonen who was making progress as he came up to the back of Perez - the only car he has made contact with all season, in Monaco, China and Monza. But everyone else was happy to stay put - Webber was told to drop back from Alonso and Rosberg rather than attack. Perhaps that plan made sense because all of the charging Raikkonen had been doing had ruined his tyres forcing him into an early tyre stop.

A couple of laps later more drivers started to filter through the pit lane which as per usual leads to a lot of cars being out of position - Webber found himself behind Ricciardo... and you can imagine that the Toro Rosso virtually jumped out of the way. Alonso however was not so fortunate, re-joining behind Paul Di Resta who has no obligations to let the car behind through and thus clung onto the position. This built a queue behind him containing Webber, Hamilton and Grosjean, a queue that remained until the Force India pulled in for his stop - by this time Vettel was so far ahead the distance could be measured using satellites and lasers. So we had to look elsewhere for some entertainment, and we found Maldonado who was still resisting the temptation to build a fort out of the plastic barriers. Instead he was trying to hold off Perez and Hulkenberg on his severely worn tyres. But this is when things got really odd, because Perez was half-way past Nico in turn seven, Hulkenberg left the track to avoid contact - leaving room for the McLaren, but was instructed to let Sergio have the position. So apparently not getting passed is now an offence too...

Now all the stops had been completed and everyone was back in position and Vettel was in another dimension, we needed something to closed things up a bit. Red Bull also needed something to at least give the rest of the field a faint sense of hope - so I can only imagine a subtle communication was sent down to Toro Rosso - introducing Ricciardo to the world of team orders and helping the German Bloke out. As a response said Toro Rosso was next seen planted in the wall under the grandstand tunnel. Of course making the suggestion that a team would as a driver to crash in Singapore would be silly, that sort of thing never happens... and as a result the safety car was released. So a brief period of time we actually saw Vettel near another car. But during this safety car session interesting strategy decisions were made - while lots of driver pitted, both Red Bulls and Mercedes' elected to stay out, because no-one could make it to the end from here...could they?

At the restart Vettel vanished off into the distance again and his race engineer phone the German up and told him to go really quickly... that's all we need, encouragement for him to destroy the field even more running at two seconds a lap faster than the entire field... The pace was so quick that even Grosjean's car was left breathless with an air compression problem of some sort - which according to the BBC transcript  Romain replied "Nooooooooooooooo". With exactly that many 'o's suffice to say Grosjean was not pleased as the Lotus was forced into retirement. Within 5 laps of the restart Vettel was 12s ahead of Rosberg... oh dear. 
The race was about to get more interesting as Webber initiated the process of the top four cars taking the stop they didn't make under the safety car - rejoining in 13th position. Rosberg and Hamilton were the next two to pit, but found themselves behind Webber's Red Bull and this is where the fun begins - because these three expected the train of cars in front of them to stop again...but they didn't. Vettel however was so far ahead he was able to stop and come out in the lead of the race now ahead of Alonso in second and of all people Jenson Button in a McLaren in 3rd. While Alonso had lots of clean space in front and behind him, Jenson did not have that luxury - instead his mirrors were filled with Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus - of these three only the Ferrari and the Lotus have a record of strong tyre management this season. 

Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton were on a crusade now that it had become apparent that in order to regain the positions lost by stopping, they were going to have to fight for them - although Rosberg was having a rather confusing conversation over the radio with his engineer. Apparently having no idea whether he should conserve tyres or give it full beans and attack the cars around him, kind of sums up the tyre era we live in - even the drivers have no idea how to drive the cars any more. Their first victim was Gutierrez, and the swarm momentarily had difficulty dealing with the straight line speed of the Sauber. A swarm that now had gained the attentions of Massa and Di Resta on the end of the queue. But as soon as Webber had made it through the floodgates opened and Esteban lost five places in the space of half a lap. Like a pack of angry increasingly angry bees the fleet lined up again and made haste towards Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, the next two cars in line. Hulkenberg decided he was having none of this - his tyres were ruined enough as it was to try and risk putting it in the wall to hold off the oncoming armada. So he didn't put up too much of a fight. 

While that onslaught carried forward towards Perez, the other Mexican had found a new queue of cars, narrowly avoiding being wiped out in the tunnel by Jean-Eric Vergne and Maldonado battling for the prize of being 11th. A fight to be in the prime position in case things kicked off inside the points. Word of those drivers scything their way to the front reached Raikkonen which meant he needed to dispatch Button and quickly before Webber and friends caught up. A task he took to with swift efficiency disregarding the DRS zones and went round the outside at the end of Esplanade Drive - the same move he pulled on Bottas earlier in the race. Raikkonen escaped just as the flotilla carved their way past Perez, although at the end of the charging pack Di Resta missed the braking point in turn seven and went into the barrier. Promoting Sutil into 10th to duel with Hulkenberg at the bottom of the points. It was Jenson who now had the attentions of Webber and co but there was a slight problem - and there will be no points for guessing that those problems happened to be on Webber's car. Mark was instructed to severely reduce engine revs and short shift.

Despite the problems Webber was able to pass Button - closely followed by the two Mercedes' coming into the stadium section - but he was unable to catch Raikkonen for 3rd. As the difficulties increased in the cursed Red Bull Webber was powerless to resist the Mercedes team and had nothing to defend with, the car was making all kinds of noises that is shouldn't make - the problem then became very apparent when the car caught fire. Still very odd that none of this happens to Vettel... hmm.... Speaking of the German bloke crossed the line to win by half a minute, and that was build over only half the race due to the safety car. Alonso scored another second place, drove very well yet still loses points in the championship, and Raikkonen bad back or not came from 13th to 3rd proving that both Ferrari and Lotus are still good on tyres - it just doesn't help like it did before the compound change. 4th and 5th for Mercedes Rosberg beating Hamilton to the line with Massa finishing 6th. Despite spending time in a podium place Button fell back to 7th just ahead of Perez in 8th. The points were rounded off by Hulkenberg and Sutil - Maldonado won the battle for 11th but couldn't add to Williams massive points total of 1pt...

On the slowdown lap, Alonso stopped to pick up Webber performing a taxi service back to the pits, however Fernando parked in the middle of the track to collect the Australian forcing Hamilton into evasive action. A brilliant gesture, just not executed particularly well - both drivers were reprimanded, but it was Webber's third reprimand so he earns a ten place grid penalty for Korea.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

The more observant among you may have noticed that I forgot to announce points from qualifying because I was a little short of time so will have to amalgamate both result sets today

Qualifying:

• 10pts - Esteban Gutierrez - A surprise performance in Q2
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - for almost punishing Vettel and Red Bull's overconfidence
• 6pts - Mark Webber - the same as Rosberg but not quite as close
• 5pts - Felipe Massa - Some brilliant powerslides coming out of the tunnel
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Almost on the front row, breaking up the Red Bull/Mercedes' group
• 3pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - bounces of the wall and still temporarily claimed bottom division pole in the Caterham
• 2pts - Sebastian Vettel - oh go on have some points
• 1pt -Pastor Maldonado - Resisting the temptation to build a fort with all those barriers.

Race:

• 25pts - Sebastian Vettel - As much as dominance is boring, that was very impressive 32s in half a race...
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - 13th to 3rd on a street track with a theoretical back problem 
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Keeps throwing everything at Vettel, and another brilliant start
• 12pts - Jenson Button - Almost had a podium, oh so close for McLaren
• 10pts - Mark Webber - Strong recovery drive, and for hailing Alonso as a taxi at the end
• 8pts - Hamilton/Rosberg - A unified attack force carving through the field 
• 6pts - Paul Di Resta - For holding off Alonso while being out of position
• 4pts - Hulkberg/Grosjean - Best radio communication responses in a long while
• 2pts - Gutierrez/Perez - Proving that two cars can fit through the new turn 10 alongside 
• 1pt - Felipe Massa - For not crashing the thermal imaging camera like Di Resta did within one sector of starting the race..

The Penalties Championship

Only one official penalty was divvied out this weekend and that was to Mark Webber, for picking up three reprimands and getting a 10 place grid penalty.

The Penalty Points Championship

• The Stewards - In what universe should Hulkenberg given that place back, could set a really unfortunate precedent - just force someone off without even passing them and get the officials to give you the place...
• Esteban Gutierrez - For not setting a lap in Q3... you thought I'd forget about that Mr Gutierrez
• Turn 10 - I'm not convinced 
• Fabio Leimer - For T-Boning Alex Rossi as the American tried to drive into the support paddock after the GP2 race finished.

Onwards to Korea

The days at the Yeongnam circuit may well be numbered as it might be forced off the calendar to make room for the likes of Mexico, Russia, Austria and New Jersey in the same manner that India is due to go missing in 2014; but it is the next venue on our journey towards Brazil. It is circuit Red Bull have been known to do well... better than Singapore so that sounds very ominous. The track itself is a tale of two completely different halves, an opening sector defined by some excessive straights leading into hairpins. While the rest of the lap feels like it belongs in Europe with several flowing corners albeit completely flattened out. The major bone to contend with the circuit is the sequence involving turns four to six - it is horrific, I mean even the original turn 10 chicane which has just been replaced had some redeeming qualities. If any part of the calendar needed sorting out, this would be it - that and the hopeless chicane at Calalunya. 

In it's opening visit to the season the Korean GP was complete madness, drowned in monsoon conditions and populated with safety car interventions, a race that ended Webber's best chance of winning the drivers title spinning into the wall and collecting Rosberg. So we might finally get some rain and hilarity on a Sunday, anything to put the brakes on Vettel's reign of supremacy and possibly inject some life into the championship. Because at this rate it will all be over by India...So until then, this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.