Round 14: South Korea 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well we have learned many things today - one: any forecast of rain is definitely lies, two: everyone hates right front tyres and three sometimes jeeps get lonely and spontaneously need some friends. But in the end we found out that we can frankly ignore Vettel now because everyone else can have plenty of fun without him while he is busy vanishing off into the distance - it was a race of close calls and some lucky escapes - Fernando notably being narrowly missed by Massa. We also learned that what this season needs with the performance distribution being the way that it is that a conveniently placed mid-race safety car is needed to made the second half of a race brilliant. Korea out-performed it's traditional dullness and inactivity. And with November not too far away now - Rosberg is now taking bookings for fireworks parties, with bonfire services provided by Webber.

Perhaps this is the final visit to Korea, but like Valencia last season this could have been the grand finale for the track - putting in a race like that might be a sign that it is on the way out - even though a representative for the track before the race claimed that everything was ok for a continued position on the calendar.

The Race

Surprise, Surprise it was very dry - and I can predict that there will be a threat of rain in Japan before it magically disappears over the course of the weekend, because that seems to be pattern of the recent races. Anyway rant aside the start was fairly uniform - except for Vettel who just drove away from Hamilton off the line, Gutierrez made a dive down the inside of Massa at turn one, at the time it didn't seem that significant... But as the field entered the massive back straight, the bunching caused by Gutierrez's pass resulted in drivers trying to go five wide - deciding that wasn't going to work Perez dropped back in line and they settled for four wide. This was never going to work and Massa tried to pass everyone at once and span across the apex, mere centimetres from the side of Alonso's car - that'd make the people at Ferrari very happy. As the field dove around the Ferrari, Button hit Gutierrez and Sutil hit Raikkonen - and Maldondo gained 10 places... without hitting anyone...

Both Sutil and Button had to pit to replace their front wings because the damage was causing tyre overheating... somehow... probably due to not redirecting air properly. A couple of drivers were working their way forward including Raikkonen passing Raikkonen and more interestingly Nico Hulkenberg passing Alonso - the Sauber was going quickly once again. Raikkonen found himself catching up to the Ferrari who was going through the 'graining' phase on the tyres and as a result was losing pace to the Lotus. Kimi didn't have too much trouble in passing Fernando because the Spaniard didn't have the grip to defend the position. It was because of this early tyre degradation phase that people became very interested in what Button was doing. After his early stop for wing damage and a change onto the medium tyres - he went and set fastest lap, sparking a hive of activity as everyone filtered through the pits in the coming laps. We were also informed that Van Der Garde pushed Bianchi off the track but the TV folk have no idea anyone exists outside the top ten so we saw no evidence of the incident. Either way it was a penalty for Giedo for this alleged infringement.

During this pit stop sequence Webber lead the race... but it wasn't to last as the German Bloke cycled to the front very shortly afterwards. But unlike Singapore Grosjean in second and Hamilton in 3rd could still see Vettel once they retook the front positions - so maybe, just maybe there was hope... then Vettel improved the lead to over four seconds again... Further back Di Resta was making friends with Perez as the pair battled into turn four - and Sergio rather forcefully made sure that the Force India wasn't going to take the position pushing Paul off the track. Speaking of making friends Hulkenberg was collecting a train of his own, as Alonso, Raikkonen and Webber had all started to queue up behind the Sauber. However just like Toro Rosso in Monza - the straight line speed of the Sauber and good traction made the car damn near unpassable. Fernando tried several times to take the position away from Hulkenberg but to no effect and had to defend from Raikkonen at the same time.

Then the oddities of the race began - not that Sky picked it up, hell I only found out on the BBC race report - was that Daniel Ricciardo came for his first stop on the alternate strategy earlier than anticipated. It appeared as a strategy call, but BBC reveal that Ricciardo had a pigeon lodged in the sidepod which needed to be removed... Which is a first for me... Turn out that the whole Red Bull giving of wings has gone one step too far. While Daniel was fleeing from the RSPB, Hamilton was complaining massively about tyres as he was losing close to three seconds a lap to those cars around him. Speaking of those who like to do a bit of complaining - Di Resta completed a quartet of crashes by putting it into the barrier. However for once he actually admitted responsibility for the accident which is one for the notebook there.

More oddities were abound as Hamilton's team radio was being censored as he insulted the tyres with some form of profanity because Rosberg closed in rapidly to take the final podium position. But as Nico made the DRS assisted pass, his nose section fell off - resulting an a huge explosion of sparks as it dragged along the ground, it looked brilliant even if it was a tad dangerous. Because Rosberg was now en-route the pits it meant Hamilton had to stay out even longer on his finished tyres. It was around this time that we were due our second round of stops, skewed slightly by the early first stops. Most of the drivers did cycle through the pits - and just as Webber came out from his second stop he found himself behind Hamilton and Perez, as Raikkonen had just passed the McLaren. But that was all too normal so Sergio's front right tyre exploded taking his front wing within it down the main straight showering the track with debris and brining out a very helpful mid-race safety car.

Under the safety car those at the tail of the field were being told off once more - because apparetly they were going too fast when catching up to the train of cars, it's rulings like this which make safety car interventions miles too long. Webber also had to pit again due to picking up a puncture from Perez's tyre failure and dropped into the mid-field. This made things considerably worse for the Australian on the restart because this placed his Red Bull in the way of Sutil's Force India as it span under breaking of turn 3. The crash ruptured the sidepod and instantly Webber's car burst into flames. Oddly it took a long time for the fire marshals to get to the car - which suggests Red Bull could do with hiring Kovalainen as this is his kind of speciality as it was at Caterham. There was now quite a lot of smoke from the car it burned to the ground blowing across the track.

Meanwhile Raikkonen pounced on a mistake by Grosjean to take second place into turn one - and Grosjean did not appreciate it at all - asking for team orders to swap the places back around - but all of that was forgotten when the field turned onto the back straight. In addition to a column of smoke arising from the bottom of the straight there was a massive jeep in the middle of the track - what in the almighty hell was that doing there - not only was it driving around in the race was going on. But instead of sticking to the side of the track under double waved yellows it was driving down the centre of the track - nothing about this was right at all - naturally the Safety car was scrambled... So we had a jeep leading Vettel with the SLS Mercedes running behind Chilton at the end of the queue - what the hell is going on... It turned out to be a fire containment truck which was released by the local fire chief to attend to Webber's charred carcass of a Red Bull. I think if things were not looking good for a return to Korea in the future - monumental cockups like this will not help.

At the second restart the top three pulled away, of course Vettel pulled away more so than the two Lotus' behind him - everyone else was trapped behind Hulkenberg in his Sauber. As once more the German proved to be impossible to pass, which just added to make Hamilton more displeased with his day - complaining that the amount of traction the Sauber had was unreal - which also had a lot to do with strategic deployment of KERs... another thing Sky managed to miss... Hamilton even asked his team if they had any suggestions as to how to deal with Nico because he was gaining attention from the cars growing behind him. Lewis finally managed to drive down the inside of the German into turn one, but the Sauber merely drove back past the Mercedes even before deploying the DRS. This brought Alonso into play trying to go round the outside of each of the corners in the 4-6 complex, constantly trying cut back ahead of Hamilton but didn't make the pass.

Further back there was another group of drivers trying to put each other into the wall - Maldonado was ahead of Gutierrez, Perez, Massa and Bottas in a fight over 10th place and one point. Things started in turn three when Pastor held off Esteban and Massa nearly pushed Perez into the barrier while Bottas watched over the whole battle. Contact continued into turn four when Massa and Perez came together nudging the McLaren out wide as he tried to follow Maldonado past Gutierrez. You'd think with the conventional passing places done for the lap, the battle would settle down - but nope - Gutierrez launched the car down the inside of Maldonado in the middle of the twisty middle sector. This pushed both cars wide gifting Massa two free places. Pastor also lost places to Perez and Bottas - dropping four places in the space of two corners.

Somewhere in the middle of all this both of the Toro Rosso's retired, Ricciardo was stopped on the outside of the track and Vergne pitted into retirement - we can assume that the RSPB got to Ricciardo for revenge for trying to store a pigeon in the sidepod because that doesn't meet welfare standards. But despite all these two battles - mainly the one behind Hulkenberg the positions remained the same for the rest of the race. Vettel took yet another victory and now has the opportunity to take the inevitable title in Suzuka. Raikkonen was not instructed to hand the position back to a displeased Grosjean - who hilariously was instructed to smile on the podium by the team, I thought anyone other than Raikkonen would be pleased to be be there anyway... Hulkenberg held off immense pressure throughout the race to score Sauber's highest position this season. A frustrated Hamilton ended up fifth ahead of Alonso and Rosberg - who was no longer showering everyone with sparks. Jenson dropped down to 8th at the end of the race with tyre wear, Massa recovered from the lap one spin to 9th and Perez scores a single point.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Well today will be remembered for and odd series of events in the middle of the race, but there were some very strong performances resisting pressure and staking a claim for a 2014 drive:

• 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Now he has a car that can make progress Hulkenberg is doing a remarkable job with it under attack from world champions all race 
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Defeating Hamilton on the opening lap and staying with Vettel roughly during the race
• 15pts - Kimi Raikkonen - 9th to 3rd demonstrating that Kimi like most things doesn't really care about qualifying
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - Because that spark display was very cool
• 10pts - Esteban Gutierrez - For passing someone without using the three main straights
• 8pts - Alonso/Hamilton - Some brilliant contact free racing over several corners
• 6pts - Sergio Perez - Well causing that safety car caused some fun afterwards so have points
• 4pts - Dario Franchitti - For still being alive after that shunt in Houston
• 2pts - South Koreans - The only country in a while not to boo Vettel
• 1pt - Di Resta - For admitting he'd made an error for once
• 1 extra point - Chip Ganassi - seeing him on a little scooter to see Dario was hilarious

The Penalties Series

The stewards had quite a busy day in Korea following the race with reprimands left right and centre, and like Webber found out in Singapore - reprimands lead to actual penalties.

• Jules Bianchi - 10 place grid penalty for getting a third reprimand for not slowing under yellows
• Charles Pic - 10 place grid penalty for getting a third reprimand for not slowing under yellows
• Adrian Sutil - Drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane
• Giedo Van Der Garde - Drive through penalty for pushing Bianchi off somewhere

The investigations into Massa vs Perez, Perez vs Di Resta and Sutil vs Webber resulted in no action

The Penalty Points Series

Where do I begin:

• The Fire truck - That was horrifically orchestrated 
• Korean Fire marshals - Where were you
• Sky Commentary team - Massively off form, constantly stating there was a tyre difference between the two Lotus' when they pitted on the same lap
• TV coverage - No coverage of the Bianchi/Van Der Garde incident that resulted in a penalty
• Rain - for being so constantly absent
• Safety Car rules - If parts of the track are clear why not allow the lapped cars to catch up
• Daniel Ricciardo  - Stealing pigeons is not permitted 

Looking Forward to Suzuka

The Japanese GP is home to one of the greatest circuits on the calendar, Suzuka is a brilliant track having everything you could wan't from a venue - ranking up there with the likes of Spa for the most challenging races of the season. Unfortunately because it is such a downforce based circuit it will likely play directly into the hands of Vettel again - it is the sort of track where he'd just drive away from the field. A little shame that this also represents the first race of the season where Vettel could actually claim this title which he is inevitably going to win anyway. This requires Alonso to finish lower than 9th at the race he crashed out of last season following contact with Raikkonen on the first lap. If a similar set of circumstances unfold... otherwise it is merely delaying the inevitable.

But Suzuka is immensely popular with the drivers and fans alike, so whatever happens in terms of the championship we should be on for a good race next weekend, so until then this is farewell from blog HQ.

Round 14: South Korea 2013: Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

Having now arrived back on my side of the wall, I've returned to find that it is business as usual at the front of the field - the margin has come down a little bit to the chasing pack but there was a certain German doing rather well once more. Just to add to the disappointment all that mention of storms, and of monsoon rainfall seemed to completely evaporate - making it the fourth race in succession where rain was mentioned and all that hope dashed again. It is starting to get to the point where the instance where the merest threat of moisture is mentioned, becomes the point where an exceedingly dry race is virtually guaranteed.

As to the session itself - it was very uneventful, where relative performances have remained the same from Singapore before penalties are applied the top six was composed of the same runners as it was two weeks ago. Yes those positions were not identical but it does show that the state of development has stagnated and relative performance has been cemented. The same teams are placing ahead of each other, and the same ones are at the back - this bodes well for Vettel to canter gently to another drivers title because no-one else has the car speed to prevent it. This necessarily makes qualifying on a track like this more of a formality - each car has an envelope of performance and they will only be able to qualify within that envelope. Which meant there are no surprises, no-one outperforming their car or competition - only losing ground to the competition.

Qualifying 

It was surprisingly dry for the start of Q1, especially considering there was supposed to be a tropical storm in the area - unless it is heading to Japan in preparation for next weekend, be cause we need a lot of preparation to actually arrange some rainfall in 2013. The first to venture out onto this warm and dry monsoon free Korean GP circuit was Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez - the Mexican who has finally not being useless set an initial benchmark time. That lead only lasted a couple of minutes before Rosberg took over that lead position in the Mercedes, followed by Button and Hamilton. Nico held onto the top spot for a while... until Hamilton found some more pace and went 0.8s faster then his team-mate.

But it was Gutierrez who peaked interest when he put the softer tyres on and found 1.3s - this concerned several teams because that meant fewer positions were safe from relegation and therefore there was wave of cars moving onto the faster tyres. Hulkenberg was able to put his Sauber fastest, and times started to tumble all over the place at one point Massa had fallen down into the relegation zone along with Maldonado. Unlike Pastor, Massa was able to improve his position which dropped Bottas into relegation and placing Di Resta perilously close to being relegated. As Di Resta tried to move further into safety he came across Bianchi who was powering up for a fast lap - because the Force India was faster than the Marussia - he got held up. Bianchi was then penalised three places... which should he make him 24th on a 22 car grid. Also it also suggests that merely having a slower car is a punishable offence...

With the new teams and Williams relegated, it was time for Q2, although no-one seemed to inform the grid, because the track remained empty for a while until Ricciardo finally broke through the wall of silence. Of the initial batch of drivers, it was Fernando Alonso who took an initial lead - perhaps the only time he'd be able to say he was ahead of Vettel for a long time. Throughout the session it was a case of drivers gently swapping places with each other - except for Hamilton who was once more stepping out to an early lead. Yet over the course of the next few minutes that advantage was reeled in to only a couple of tenths, but nothing exciting was going on, everything was too methodical and systematic.

Down in the relegation zone, things were not as frantic as they normally are, Force India were no where near making the top ten and Toro Rosso were also uncharacteristically off the pace compared they traditional Korean form. With four cars out of contention already, it came down to the battle between McLaren and Sauber - and it was the latter who came out on top. Button tried to deflect blame onto being fractionally held up by Raikkonen but the fact that both McLarens were 0.003s apart on time suggests that the team as a whole are off the pace. Hulkenberg put his car into 4th demonstrating that the form was not a fluke in Monza. Yet at the front Vettel was on top once more...

Only Q3 to go and for the first run, only half of the drivers took to the track - at this point there was the threat of penalty points was looming over those in the garages. For a moment Webber was on pole with what initially seemed like a strong lap - which would be ultimate damage limitation considering he does have that 10-place penalty hanging over him. But then there was Vettel half a lap behind them all going a lot quicker and inevitably took pole position.

Then things got a little weird, because traditionally the second runs see an improvement in times, but out of the 10 drivers on track only Hamilton made an improvement - and that was only good enough for second. The cars in the second batch - Ferrari, Sauber and Raikkonen just joined the end of the standings in that order. With Webber's penalty the top grid looks remarkably similar to Singapore - Vettel, followed by a Mercedes and Grosjean and another Mercedes then the two Ferrari's Massa not leading that particular row. Raikkonen's lack of a pace can't this week be attributed to his back problems... hopefully things will improve once the Finn moves to Ferrari.

The Bonus points championship

10pts - Takuma Sato - Pole position for race one of the Indycar race of Houston
8pts - Nico Hulkenberg - 4th place in Q2 and inside the top ten again
6pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Proving not to be useless again
5pts - Romain Grosjean - Top three once more for the Lotus driver comprehensively beating Kimi
4pts - Lewis Hamilton - Almost stopped Vettel Winning everything
3pts - Valtteri Bottas - Things are bad at Williams but the rookie is still beating Maldonado
2pts - Perez/Button - 0.003s difference now that is consistency
1pt - Dario Franchitti - For avoiding a stalled car by the smallest of margins off the line

The Penalties championship

There is only one penalty to mention - Webber's was added last race when it was initially ordered - but today's goes to Bianchi because his Marussia isn't fast enough for the stewards standards are concerned.

Penalty Points championship

Two additions to the penalty points table following this weekend so far.

• Paul Di Resta - Seriously stop whining 
• The Stewards - Having a slower car is not a crime

Looking to Tomorrow

This is one of the first races where I have to rely on the Sky Box to record the event because it is set so early in the morning and it is not one of the races you'd consider staying up for. Korea is often devoid of memorable racing, aside from the initial monsoon ridden debut race. What tomorrow needs is for Hamilton to get ahead of Vettel at the start of the race, like Rosberg tried in Singapore - otherwise Vettel will vanish off into the distance and will never be seen of again.

But there is hope for some intrigue as Webber does have some overtaking to do to recover from the grip drop down in 13th place - attacking the race with a car set up for higher top speed and overtaking potential. The potential for rain in the equation has diminished completely pretty much, as we assumed it would to so I woudn't expect this to be a riveting event full of action and on track racing. This race will be a strategy based event to decide who gets to finish second.

Round 14: South Korea 2013 - Preview

Ach No Internet,

Today's preview post comes from the other side of the wall, where the wildings live, and all kinds of frightening things. In this place I half expect to open a door and get assaulted by Lenny Henry - but fortunately none of those things have actually happened, I have spied a chip shop where you can buy pizza, along with an identical half of said pizza...fried in batter.. my internal organs cried at the mere thought. However questionable cuisine aside - replaced by a small Chinese restaurant above a newsagents, much more palatable - it is time to actually get on with the purpose of this contribution to annuls of nonsense that ends up on the internet. After yesterdays publication it seems convenient that we come to one of the tracks shortlisted as being under threat for eviction from the calendar, a case they didn't help when the weekend schedule only contained a single support category, and they probably had to be bribed to turn up. Normally these would be populated local motorsport categories, and continental championships when we are in Europe. In Australia the entirety of the national racing series turn up and it is brilliant - including the lead national championship, the V8 supercars. So what is this single support event scheduled to take part in Yeongnam - it is the Jeonnam Motor Racing Championship, which for some reason refuses to be googled. The only thing I've found is a picture of several Hyundai hatchbacks on the track, either way it doesn't seem to inspiring.

There is a bigger threat to this years race, because there is a rather nasty typhoon in the area, which might make landfall in the vicinity of the racetrack at some point during the weekend. Some predictions suggest that it might visit Yeongnam around the time of third practice, which would also ruin Qualifying. Others are saying that it might miss the track altogether and cause no problem at all. Which given the fact this is now the fourth race in a row where rain has been placed on the table, I would assume that we'll see no sign of any moisture on Sunday at all. However if this storm does happen then there is an expected 90-160mm of rain... which for once would actually be grounds for a red flag, unlike any other spot of drizzle on race day that causes an immediate halt to any proceedings. But we had a lot of rain in the inaugural Korean GP in 2010 and that went ahead... albeit delayed and it did end Webber's title ambitions... so I know one driver who might prefer a typhoon free race.

The Track

Every time we reach this point in the season and we see the track looking as empty and unfulfilled as it was when the place was a mere construction site in the debut season. It is clear that any investment and development has come to an abrupt standstill, some things are tidied up year on year - minor improvements here and there. The major change coming into this season is the relocation of the pit-lane, because for too long it was truly horrific - simply stapled onto the exit of the first corner - feeding cars into traffic. The alternative sees cars using the turn-one run-off area and rejoin somewhere around turn two - it does keep cars off the racing line, but it just moves those slow cars off the edge of the track (depending on how far wide this new lane is) so if someone aquaplanes off in a potential monsoon, there is still a severe impact zone. Not that this rain is actually going to happen again.

The opening sector was designed with a long ruler and a protractor - because there was supposed to be some buildings here - to disguise the straight with buildings. Without them the straights are exposed for the joyless DRS based artificial overtaking zones that they are. The pinnacle of of this scenario is the sequence of corners from turn four to turn six - on a street track you'd forget how they are defined, the corner radius would go unnoticed, because you'd look at the buildings instead or because it would look like it fits. Take the Loews Hairpin at Monaco - because it's Monaco and it's been there since the dawn of time, we're all fine with it - if someone build a corner in a field with the same radius there would be outrage. Turns 4-6 are horrid, clunky and completely pointless, the energy it took to remove Singapore's infamous chicane should have been redirected here.

One interesting observation from the layout, is that the best section of the lap - the middle sector from the exit of turn 6 all the way to turn 14 is very drivable and fairly decent for a Tilke track - but the important thing is that this was the section wasn't supposed to be within the 'city' complex. Demonstrating that if it wasn't for trying to accommodate for a fictional tourist utopia - the remainder of the track might be an improvement. However the track in India doesn't have a city to cover for, and that has a series of excessive straights - tracks specifically designed to allow DRS overtaking - deliberately splitting the part of the track designed for passing, and the bits worth driving. At the end of the lap, there is a strange hybrid of the two which in 2010 looked a little like a mangled mess. There was supposed to be a marina - a la Monaco or Abu Dhabi - but like everything, else didn't happen. As a result there is a strange semi-circle turn lined with concrete - which since they know that the building has ceased - has been widened. What they have inadvertently created is a very interesting sequence of corners which actually works in the odd half-finished state it is in.

The Form Guide

In the inevitable dry conditions of race day Vettel will, one can assume, will be once more be so far out in the lead it'll be Singapore all over again - complaints will happen, booing will ensue, but the season will roll on with a certain German bloke increasing that championship margin. It was at this race in 2010 when Webber crashed out of contention while being the only person who could challenge Vettel when there was rather a lot of rain. Because of the new tyre situation the top four will likely be composed of Mercedes of Red Bull cars - more so in qualifying. Come Sunday Alonso will naturally be in that equation because he likes driving that Ferrari faster than it should be going, and somewhere in that melee will be Lotus depending on whether Raikkonen's back is completely recovered, and whether Grosjean's car works.

The dynamic of the mid-field has changed completely since the tyres were changed - Force India have gone from a dominant force (haha) to battling with Williams at the bottom of the division. This promotes Torro Rosso further forward, and Korea has always been a good race for them - except 2010 when Buemi had a bit of an accident in the wet. But the biggest gainer of all is Sauber, in the past races they've had a car in the top ten - most remarkably Hulkenberg 3rd in Monza in qualifying. There were within thousandths of both cars making Q3 in Singapore, so Korea must be promising and opens the potential for some significant points. Despite all of this change Williams have stayed the same, only scoring a single, solitary point all season - and even that was a fluke, handed to Maldonado in Hungary after Rosberg retired with less than five laps to go.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the tyre changes can have a severe impact at the bottom of the field because the pace is so comparatively slow, but some calculations published on F1Fanatic.co.uk noted that Marussia have suffered the worst with the change in compound. Beforehand they were leading the bottom division and Bianchi was threatening Williams at times, but now they struggle to leave the back row - and only a team order mix up meant that Chilton didn't finish last in Singapore. This means that Caterham have made relative progress, and more importantly Van Der Garde has made major progress, starting the season battling with Chilton - the least appreciated driver on the grid - to leading the division. A series of strong performances notably in Spa qualifying have improved his approval rating - mixed conditions in Korea might further that development.

Overall Korea is not an inspiring race, somewhat because the track is a partially completed construction site where the staff have all buggered off, some of the track is really good - but the whole setting is miserable and desolate. Hundreds of miles from anywhere Yeongnam is marsh in which someone has parachuted a decent racetrack, it is massively under-supported and under-attended. So in retrospect, this might be the last visit to Korea, so some storm induced madness would a nice send off for the Korean GP.

The 2014 Calendar - and a special annoucement

Greetings Internet

Before things get started with the primary point of this latest contribution to the internet there is the matter of that announcement. A long time ago (in this galaxy) in the inaugural season of coverage coming out from the depths of Blog HQ - there was an acquisition of sorts. Upon the weekend of the Singaporean GP of 2011, through the extreme skill of throwing a ping pong ball into an empty jam jar, Blog HQ was gifted an aquatic mascot. It was on that day that Blog 'Happy' Fish moved in, and against all odds that fish remains alive and possibly happy - but that cannot be verified. The fish may no longer have any fins left after they all parted company in 2012, but this weekend past represents the second anniversary of his/her adoption - the actual date was the 26th of September and this post was supposed to be written earlier but I forgot. So back then is was happy-first-time-in-relocated-captivity... day and if I was a one for celebrations they would be have been immense, but seeing as I'm not it was a typically subdued occasion.

Once that important event has been covered, it is time to move on to the purpose of today's post, and that is that a provisional 2014 calendar has been released - normally this is merely a formality for the powers that be, but this one is a little different. Because we have a plethora of new entries to take a look at, pushing the number of races up to 22, which is going to be very hectic - including three races in three weeks in the middle of the season. Of course this only a provisional calendar with some venues hanging onto their place with the very edge of their fingertips so by the time things roll out again next season, that number may have been trimmed ever so slightly.

The Calendar 

This is the list of proposed races and dates for the 2014 season, all the races from this season are present with the exception of India which is on a sabbatical - and may not make a comeback in 2015 considering how packed the schedule is at the moment. Three completely new circuits join the list as well as one returning venue from several years ago - the most challenging span logistically is the one from Monaco to Montreal. Normally a two week gap is conventional between the two, but fitting a long haul flight to New Jersey in the middle is going to be really difficult and expensive.

16/03 Australia
30/03 Malaysia
06/04 Bahrain
20/04 China
27/04 Korea (provisional)
11/05 Spain
25/05 Monaco
01/06 America, New Jersey (provisional*)
08/06 Canada
22/06 Austria
06/07 Britain
20/07 Germany
27/07 Hungary
24/08 Belgium
07/09 Italy
21/09 Singapore
05/10 Russia
12/10 Japan
26/10 Abu Dhabi
09/11 USA, Austin
16/11 Mexico (provisional*)
30/11 Brazil

The New Entries

Several new venues have appeared on this potential calendar, some have been floating around for a while and others just turned up within weeks of the calendar being launched - while other names like Thailand and South Africa remain only distant rumours. But is time to examine exactly what these new additions have in store for 2014

New Jersey 

This track was originally planned to début this season, which is why we've ended up with a lot of strange scheduling and odd breaks between races - there was a last minute effort to find a replacement, candidates included Istanbul and the Algarve Circuit in Portugal. New Jersey was unable to fill the place due to financial difficulties leading to delays in construction and preparation - not helped by Hurricane Sandy disrupting things.

Just looking at the layout it doesn't seem all that grand, almost as if it was thrown together just to compete with Austin's race. But an rFactor simulation video that's been floating around makes it seem a little better than that - unfortunately the model isn't up for public release or I'd have had a go myself. It doesn't seem like a typical US street circuit - like Long Beach or St Petersberg, all full of angles and sharp corners. There is a bit of that here, mainly surrounding the main straight but the majority of it looks quite fast. I'd like to see it happen simply for curiosity's sake but of the four is holds the most tenuous position and might not be ready again for 2014.

Austria

With F1 looking for new and ever more exotic places to hold an event it might seem odd that a little country back here in Europe would make a return - especially after the track, the A1 Ring fell into disrepair and was no longer fit for usage. But the track was resurrected and renamed as the Red Bull Ring... and it all starts to make sense a home race for the most successful team in the recent years. Having seen some footage from other categories that have used the track since the rebuild and it looks identical to how it once was - almost nostalgic - with the exception of pit lane updates of course.

The A1 (or Red Bull) Ring also contravenes the majority of present circuit design concepts, the idea of cramming as many corners into as little space as possible didn't reach Austria - the track has 9 corners and is very simply in it's configuration. Yet it is such a good track, turn one is a medium speed uphill kink leading into a mountainous with a hairpin at the peak. The middle sector is four sweeping corners and the final sector is made of two virtually blind apexed downhill corners which entice you to go a little bit faster every time. It may only be back because Red Bull are taking over everything but I'm not going to complain.

Russia

Because Russia is becoming ever more influential in the sport, starting with Vitaly Petrov as their first driver and now with Marussia as a team and the incoming prospect of Sirotkin at Sauber - it stands to reason they make their mark on the calendar too. It has been a long time coming as rumours of a Russian GP have been around for a while but is it finally here - or it will be once it is finished. Just like South Korea the plans for the circuit look very ambitious, and because of what didn't happen in Korea it is natural to be a little sceptical as to how it's actually going to turn out. But unlike Korea, Russia has an ace up it's sleeve because the F1 event is going to be set in Sochi - which is also hosting the 2014 winter Olympics. Meaning all the infrastructure and building work is going to happen because it needs to be there for the winter games.

This makes the track a pseudo-street event - like Korea was supposed to be but never happened - built around the Olympic park, a similar idea was suggested when considering the fate of the London Olympic park. The concept has been done before, in Australia the Sydney Olympic park is now home to the finale of the V8 Supercar season, and that is brilliant - but is it a street track not a purpose built facility like this plans to be. It is a very enthralling prospect, and has some interesting corners on the track maps released.

Mexico 

A trip to Mexico is an example of F1 travelling to new emerging markets and the product of Perez and now Gutierrez's local popularity. Fortunately instead of building a new sanitised track out of the Tilke mass production design office, they plan to use the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Like Austria's A1 Ring, the Autodromo has been on the F1 calendar before - just many, many years ago - since then it has been used to host Champcar events and for a brief while NASCAR nationwide events (or Busch series as it was called then). It is a very traditional racetrack with a lot of history to it, most of which created before my existence, which is much nicer to see on the schedule than another monolithic sculpture in the desert.

But, and it is a big but, the track does need a lot of repairs to bring it up to standard having been out of circulation for a while - since champ car went bankrupt there has been very little international attention on the venue. So instead of a bit of paint here and some safer barriers there, Mr Tilke was sent out to make some changes to accommodate better pit facilities and safety requirements. Which leads to one major problem - the Peraltada, the final corner of the lap which is at massive speeds with only a concrete wall for run off, exacerbated by the huge corner entry speeds off the back straight. It is a wonderful turn, but does raise safety questions and has done for years. Champ car refused to take the final corner at full speed and opted for a horrible temporary chicane to slow the pace down, in another year the track was re-routed through the baseball stadium inside the corner to bypass half of the turn. Unfortunately the concrete wall can't be moved because there is a major motorway on the other side of it, forcing these solutions. But it's Tilke's job now to come up with something... a thought which is rather disturbing, here's hoping that this isn't another circuit that is neutered to make officially onto the calendar.

Are Korea's days numbered...

In the remodelled calendar the Korean GP has been moved much further forward, it currently occupies a next weekend, well practice in a couple of days, but no more - it is set to be race five in 2014 which is an ominous sign. Turkey and Valencia were moved further forward and then they went missing, permanently, however China and Malaysia survived the trip forwards. But here is the problem Korea has delivered nothing it has set out to do - plans to build a whole tourist metropolis surrounding the track failed to appear - instead there are fields and the occasional marsh... This has made it difficult for fans to get to the very isolated track, and therefore attendance figures have been very small, something that has also called the chinese GP into question and finished off the Turkish GP. With a calendar so crammed and essentially overpopulated venues like Korea may be on the way out. This weekend we may see an announcement as to the future of the Korean GP, but it is hanging onto it's place very tenuously indeed.

For example India - they had some attendance issues, mostly due to high entry fees in a country where the population cannot afford them, having to rely on the rich and outside tourists isn't enough to support the race. Which is why there were so many protests at the time the race was launched in 2011, a race which ignored the actual residents of India and look what happened. It too has gone missing, allegedly for only a season off, but it could be the first step to a permanent relegation from the championship, because if it came back in 2015 we'd be looking at 23 races, and people are complaining with the current calendar. I think it is a shame really, because India is one of the few Tilke tracks that is actually enjoyable - perhaps the straights are a little excessive but otherwise the corner combinations are pretty decent.

Overall 2014 does look fun, the teams might not think so - going from Monaco to New Jersey with cars, personnel and equipment in three days is challenging to say the least, but for us, the people at home sitting on the sofa it is wonderful. Because who doesn't want more racing adding some new interesting venues in Russia and New Jersey, but for once actually welcoming back some of the old traditional tracks that have been missing from the championship in a long while. So bring it on I say.

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.

Round 13: Singapore - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

Somebody needs to take that German bloke away and leave him there for a while, because this is starting to look painfully easy for Mr Vettel to walk all over the rest of the field there was one stage when the chap was a second faster than everyone... So the battle as we all expected it to be will be for second place - only a storm and huge amounts of rain could wash away he chances of simply vanishing off into the night tomorrow and towards the championship. However some slight arrogance on the Red Bull pitwall was almost their undoing, and there would have been some mega bonus points to anyone who stole the latest pole position away from him. Alas it wasn't to be and it is normal service, the same two teams take out the front of the grid - with the exception of one interloper - as it has been for a while now. All getting rather repetitive.

But there have been some changes to the track, on Thursday I pointed out that the slow and cumbersome turn 10 chicane has been axed from the layout in favour of a newer faster corner lined with more plastic barriers. Barriers I might add that were called into action within 4 minutes of the start of the GP2 qualifying session as Mitch Evans became the only person to crash out at this new corner. The thing is this new corner is not very good, Singapore already has a problem of having lots of very similar corners, so why on earth did they decide that the optimum profile for the new 10 had to be the same as other corners on the lap. There is lots of room to create a corner that hugs the inside wall and feeds into the chicane before the Andersson bridge, it would be much faster and offer something different. This 'solution' filters the cars into a narrow approach and imposes a wider and shorter apex - seriously why, the original may have been artificial but at least it was unique. This is neither a high speed corner we all want or a new overtaking zone it is just generic nothing corner...

Qualifying 

Because time is a little limited today, a small matter of being on stage in a couple of hours or so, so as a result we'll revert to the more concise format as seen earlier in the season.

Q1

Max Chilton - Surprise, surprise the Briton spends another race starting from the back of the grid was barely noticeable during qualifying.
Jules Bianchi - Marussia have no pace at the moment in relation to their current rivals Caterham lining up behind the green cars again.
Giedo Van Der Garde - Van Der Garde bounced off the wall on his fastest lap but the car was able to complete the lap and at the time lead the lower division
Charles Pic - Pipped Giedo at the end of the session just by not hitting the wall I'd imagine
Pastor Maldonado - Another Williams knocked out of the first part of qualifying and more importantly Pastor has not found all that fort material in the new turn 10. Plenty of time for that.
Paul Di Resta - Out in Q1 again, since the tyre changes Force India have been nowhere and that trend has been repeated on the streets of Singapore.

Q2

Valtteri Bottas - Bottas may have escaped the relegation zone but didn't get much further in the next session only making it into 16th place
Adrian Sutil - The same could be said for Sutil, nowhere near the form the team had at the start of the season, the car that lead in Australia, while Di Resta almost took a podium in Bahrain - it's not going too well back here.
Sergio Perez - McLaren are still not doing well and have managed to be dragged into the driver rumour mill suggesting that Perez's seat might be up for grabs, 14th place today isn't a strong statement in dispelling these rumours
Kimi Raikkonen - Struggling with back pain issues this week, the more cynical among you may imply that those problems may be lack of money related and Kimi has effectively just given up, but either way the Finn could only manage 13th today. Personally I think he is looking for a visit to a local massage parlour...
Jean-Eric Vergne - In the dying seconds of Q2 Vergne was sitting in 8th, but the times tumbled on the last few laps and Jean-Eric was shuffled down the line and out of the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg - Fractionally missing out on the top ten again, the last completed lap of the session demoted Nico by mere hundredths of a second.

Q3

Esteban Gutierrez - Lining up 10th does not tell the story of Gutierrez's day, remained completely anonymous up until the very end of Q2 when he somehow put the Sauber into 6th place... like Hulkenberg in Monza where on earth did that come from. But failed to set a time in Q3 and will get a penalty point for his trouble.
Daniel Ricciardo - Another top ten position for Webber's replacement although he was effectively last of those who set a lap in the final part of qualifying. But Toro Rosso are now competing with Sauber for top honours in the mid-field since Force India have fallen to the back of the grid.
Jenson Button - It is probably a sad state of affairs when qualifying 8th is a good day for McLaren and for Jenson, but kudos for going out and setting a lap even when it seemed like it would have been better to abort the session
Fernando Alonso - Ferrari are struggling a little and if you notice no mention of Massa yet, meaning Fernando is behind the driver the team have just fired... Interesting - but this drop off in form comes at just at the wrong time, just as Vettel is on a streak of complete dominance... goodbye championship.
Felipe Massa - Demonstrated the lack of grip in that car by powersliding out of the tunnel section coming very close to hitting the wall. Given Felipe's record of crashing on street tracks this has been a very successful day for Massa, perhaps Lotus will be giving him a call soon.
Lewis Hamilton - Sits last of the top four cars which interestingly accounts for 5th place on the grid, Hamliton seems happier than he was in Monza, but that didn't take too much considering how displeased he was then.
Mark Webber - Set out on the final lap hoping to steal the pole position from Vettel while the German was in hiding, set a strong first sector but lost three tenths at the end of the lap
Romain Grosjean - Proof that Lotus have some decent pace this weekend, if it wasn't for Raikkonen's back there might have been two cars up front, but Romain is doing a grand job of carrying the team in Singapore. Looking to secure his seat at the team for 2014
Nico Rosberg - Came oh so close to punishing Vettel for his seemingly excessive confidence in the final session, as Vettel hid Nico stormed to within a tenth of taking that pole away, despite being nowhere in practice.
Sebastien Vettel - The German bloke has been painfully dominant all session, so much that he gave up doing a final run in Q3 because at the time the margin was so large to second place. It came so close to all blowing up in his face but that Red Bull cannot be stopped at the moment and this is the closest he'll be to another car all weekend.

Looking to Tomorrow

Singapore always has the potential to be entertaining, with the threat of safety cars and running close to the maximum time limit of 2 hours. Because the chicane has been removed the laptimes are faster, meaning we should have a bigger margin to that limit - before safety cars get involved. In the GP2 race they managed to complete the session without brining out the safety car and without causing too much damage to each other. In the main race tomorrow things might be a little more sedate than previous years, calmer even Maldonado has stayed away from the barriers. For the most part the grid is in the order of pace, without anyone really out of position. There is the tiniest threat of rain but that hasn't happened for a long time now despite more significant forecasts. But with walls in close proximity anything is possible.

Round 13: Singapore - Preview

Y'arr Mateys o' Yonder Internet

It is probably an event of poor timing to for this post to coincide with International Talk Like a Pirate day, and being the start of the Singaporean GP weekend - a location with piratical connections if them there moving pictures wit that matey Capt'n Jack (not the torchwood version). Thar be a sea of tarmac waiting for the crews as they make landfall at a most magical port crossing the open waters and into the night. During the voyage from Monza there has been some rumblings in the turbulent seas within the paddock, Captain Button has sworn allegiance to his ship o' McLaren swearing that'd fight for them in resurrecting the shambles of a galleon they set afloat this season.

The other matey in a spot of hot water at the moment is First Mate Massa - marooned by the grand Pirate Luca Di Montezemelo - he is looking for a new crew. Jenson nailing his colours to the mast has closed escape from the desert island of unemployment. So Massa has been hailing across the harbour at Lotus, requesting to come aboard and speak to the captain. An opening has appeared on deck since Raikkonen jumped ship to plunder all the rum and ice cream in the Ferrari galley. Thar be a minor problem with First Mate Felipe's dastardly plan, as just off the starboard bow there is a lot landlubbers waiting for their chance at earning their sea legs. The likes of Valsecchi, Vandoorne, Magnussen, could all be sending out bottled messages to request an audience with the captain. On top of that thar be pirates in lesser ships looking to sail under a more prominent flag. Who knows, only time will tell.

 For thar be more pressing matters, to be decided under the mechanical lights of the Singapore streets, where the tyrant of the seas remains upon the crows nest looking down as rivals try in vain to mutiny against his dominance. Closest challenger Alonso needs Mr Vettel to pay a visit to Davey Jones' Locker for a couple of weekends to claim the ultimate loot. Perhaps the German Matey needs to be marooned along way from shore, or devious subterfuge up the Red Bull galleon with a little more ballast in the hull to slow 'er down. Alas through the lens o' me spyglass I spy a pivotal weekend in uncertain times.

Yer treasure map

This is only a young visitor to the calendar and in that time has made friends and foes alike, some vilify the track for having a lot of generic corners and some which defy sanity - which typifies street circuits outside of Europe. Over in the Americas, street circuits are defined by 90 degree corners and painfully artificial chicanes yet they still work out alright and can provide some brilliant racing. For the purposes of this argument we're going to ignore the Baltimore track that merely produced pile ups and ages sailing behind the safety car. In Europe our street tracks (not that our little island does them any more) use more flowing windy roads - like Monaco or Pau because that is the topology of the infrastructure. 

But I do not fall on the side of those nay-sayers, I am all for the Singaporean circuit, of course there can be some improvements mostly in the final sector between turns 16 and 21. Admittedly that section has been improved by the fact the track turns underneath the grandstand which is a nice feature after turn 18, but in order to fit it in it all seems at little forced to make it happen. But announcements on the run up to the race are promising, we are all aware of the very questionable chicane at turn 10, the one that throws cars into the barrier at the first opportunity. For 2013 that corner has been abolished, replaced by a single higher speed corner - which does seem rather odd considering it was put in place for safety reasons. We all know how much health and safety takes precedence these days, yet here the opposite has taken place, instead an extra layer of those plastic barriers. I reckon at the news a smile of pure joy spread across Maldonado's face, not only will the corner mirror tabac, but will lined with prime fort building materials. The perfect place to launch cannon fire at enemy vessels. 

The rest of the lap is fairly decent with overtaking zones fast and slow corners all bounded by concrete walls to punish the slightest of errors. Unlike the walls over here in Europe they are not metal guardrails that require hours of rebuilding after an accident, which is important because GP2 will be making the trip and they have a habit of crashing into things. Things needed delaying in Monaco after a Porsche race ruined the barrier at Massonet - not a problem here. As well as the fact that the track is wider allowing more cars to run two wide without making too much contact, all made safer by the fact that Schumacher isn't here, because that old captain crashed into his fair share of cars in his second wind, most of those being Saubers... Singapore may not be a traditional ribbon of road undulating through a forest, but at night it remains unique and spectacular.

Yar Manifest o' Form

I'll be donning me Pirate hat once more to cast a wary eye upon the roster, and it would seem that Shipmate Sebastian will likely be sailing out into the lead, out and over the horizon not to be seen nor heard from again. Floating listlessly in the wake of Newey's seafaring craftsmanship lies the rest of the fleet, even the sister ship seems to have a few holes in the hull and a smaller sail - a fate that new deckhand Ricciardo will be at the helm of. On the day before the main voyage the two captains of the silver ships may have some early pace, with a chance of taking pole position - but over a longer venture the Red Bulls are the fastest pair in the seven seas. Rum smuggling Raikkonen and the barmy crew aboard Lotus may be in for a strong quest for a points loot, high temperatures and narrow seas suit their vessels. The same could be same for Ferrari where First Mate Massa is requested to stay the course aiding his superiors before being asked to walk the plank. All the while McLaren will be forced to watch it all unfold a ways off the starboard bow.

In the tormented squall that is the mid-field it will be Force India team leading the crusade to plunder points right out from the noses of the bigger crews, Adrian Sutil and ship's parrot Di Resta have always faired well upon these strange tides. Placing open water between themselves and those lagging behind. Sauber have mighty Sea-farer Hulkenberg at the helm surging forth to bride that gap - an outstanding performance at Monza declared his intent. Hurling more than a bottled message across the bows at Lotus looking to sign an accord. Torro Rosso will have the measure of Williams where landlubber Maldonado will be looking to build another fort upon dry land waiting to lay siege to his rivals, and perchance exact revenge upon Marussia's financeer Mr Chilton.

Down in the cold and stagnant doldrums, Caterham have reasserted their dominance over the lowest of territories at the back of the grid, coercing Marussia to walk the lonely plank back down to the final row. Caterham should acquiesce the services of chief officer Kovalainen should flames break out below deck they need to call upon his special expertise on the bay. 

These are formidable waters and this latest page in this season's saga will be contested underneath the stars and electrical lamps and between the walls. Perhaps some turbulent weather and mighty storms may be able to turn the tide on this championship.