F1 Singapore - The Race

Here we go for the much anticipated Singapore Grand Prix around the 23 turns of the Marina Bay circuit. The teams are now into fly away races to the end of the season which means no real major upgrades so what they have will remain for the final five races of the 2010 season.

With only twenty four points covering the top five makes it very intense and any slip up amongst them could punt them out of the championship chase. Turns one and two could a major test for all the drivers.

Fernando on pole alongside Sebastian, the Mclaren's line astern behind, Mark back in fifth, Felipe last with plenty in between to cause problems for the top five including Robert in his Renault suggest this could be a very interesting if not great race.

Apart from the race in Singapore, underneath the lights it is also a great spectacle and you can really see the intense colours of the cars. A quick look at the Gull winged Mercedes safety car during Martin's grid walk showed what level of equipment this car has, a fantastic motor car which follows the grand prix circus.

The temperature in Singapore must be difficult for the drivers to deal with particularly as it is likely to be a two hour race. With humidity at 61 degrees, track temperature thirty one degrees, air temperature of thirty degrees and sixty one laps to go this is intense for all concerned.

The cars move off onto their siter lap and the tension begins to build. Tyres and brakes will be critical for all the cars and that has been the case for the past two years here. Mark blew a brake disc apart and rammed the barrier last year.

Away they go basically in grid order albeit Fernando had to move over to stop the fast starting Sebastian from coming past and Fernando put in quick laps from the start. Jenson passed Lewis momentarily but Lewis was later on the brakes into turn one.

Then out came the safety on only lap three and many of the cars came into to change to the prime tyres enabling them to run to the finish without another stop. Mark however rejoined in eleventh and his progress through the field was not helped by the twisty circuit nature. Felipe in the meanwhile was running in fifteenth and having the same problem passing as Mark.

Both Mclaren's seemed to be running a waiting game as Fernando was running a second quicker on lap fourteen. It will be interesting to see what happens when the top drivers come in to change the tyres. It appears the prime tyres are not working on their early stages and Nico H was complaining about traction on them.

Timo was causing a mobile chicane and the drivers who switched to the prime tyres were all blocked behind him and it took a mistake from him to allow Nico H and Felipe through. At the front Fernando was now down in the 51's as the fuel burns off and the front five won't have any problems changing tyres and holding their positions.

Sebastian was running some seven seconds ahead of Lewis and it seems the Mclaren's cannot hold the pace of the Ferrari and Red Bull at this fairly early stage of the race. Mark has dropped some thirty seconds behind Fernando and his progress was stunted after his tyre stop.

Then the Mclaren's dropped straight off the pace and had to stop for tyres but their pace had dropped Lewis behind Mark. Then they were followed in by Fernando and Sebastian and Sebastian almost immediately narrowed the gap to Fernando.

Kamui went into the barriers and Bruno went straight into the back of him which then brought out the safety car again. After what seems to have have been a long race already there are still twenty eight laps to go as they all bunch up behind the safety car.

The placings at thirty four laps are Fernando, Sebastian, Mark, Lewis, Jenson, Nico, Robert and Rubens. With 26 laps to go the race will almost certainly run to the two hour period after all the events of the previous laps.

As the safety car came in Lewis was on better tyres than Mark and went to pass him, they tangled and once again out went Lewis and another non finish. The contact is being viewed by the stewards and we have to await the outcome. I believe a racing incident and will be surprised if any action against Mark is taken.

Now Mark has Jenson on his tail and the outcome between these two will be interesting. Out in front Fernando and Sebastian are in a class of their own trading fastest lap after fastest lap running only a second apart. After forty three laps we now had lost seven cars through accidents basically. In the meanwhile Felipe was now running in tenth which is creditable after starting last.

Robert picked up a right side rear puncture from sixth and pitted for a tyre change and strangely they put on a set of primes. He immediately shot onto the back of Sebastien B and with Vitaly in front him he was in a Renault sandwich. Robert was running now in twelfth until he passed Sebastien B and shot straight up behind Vitaly. Robert has nothing to lose as running eleventh and out of the points so action stations on his team mate.

Still nip and tuck between Fernando and Sebastian, Mark and Jenson and at the bottom end of the points Robert was now moving through as he passed Vitaly, Felipe, Nico H, Adrian and now Adrian is flying on his new tyres and already back to seventh.

It is still mighty close between the front two as Sebastian closes on Fernando when passing Michael and Heikki and they are both driving an outstanding race. As Fernando has the lead he will be very difficult to pass having the high ground.

As the final minutes ground down Sebastian was sat on Fernando's tail and it was certainly very tense. As the two hours struck Fernando took the flag after a great drive from the two times world champion.

At the flag Fernando finished in P1 followed by Sebastian, Mark, Jenson, Nico, Rubens, Robert, Adrian, Nico H and Felipe completing the points scorers. Vitaly, Jaime, Michael, Sebastien B, Lucas and finally Heikki whose was badly on fire and he had to put the fire out himself as the fire marshall's were too slow and he did a great job as the cars literally flew past him on the start finish line.

All the rest didn't finish and that of course included Lewis who leaves in third in the championship now twenty points behind Mark but still in the hunt.

Great race, great spectacle and congratulations to all the drivers for a wonderful job done under the heat intensity of Singapore. Now the teams move to Suzuka and hopefully to another thrilling race.

F1 Singapore Quali

Welcome to the night race in Singapore and the fantastic albeit sometimes dangerous Marina Bay circuit. Lewis has criticised certain changes to the circuit complaining that what were already tight corners have now been made dangerous and actually launch the car into the air, very dangerous.

This is a tough track with plenty of turns and of course the drivers have to contend with body clock issues albeit none of them seem to mention that, only the heat.

Teams have difficult decisions to make at this time in the season accepting some of the drivers have a better chance to win the championship. However, Mclaren and Red Bull have both drivers fighting at the top and it appears Ferrari have chosen Fernando based on his points. There is talk Renault could upset the apple cart by taking points away from the front runners.

Into Q1 and it is a real dog fight at the top as Sebastian drops into the 46's. With 10 minutes to go the session was Red flagged as Felipe's Ferrari stopped out on track in a difficult position.

It does seem strange when looking at the long shots of the circuit in the dark yet when watching the race the lighting is so good you don't really notice the dark. However, the cars look even better as the bright lights show the colours in depth under the very strong lighting.

I feel impressed with myself as I have been lapping in the 1.46's on the WII in Lewis's car.

So as they resume it is Sebastian, Fernando, Mark, Jenson, Jaime and Lewis. Red Bull seem to have the edge here as they forecast that would be the case as in fact they said would be the opposite at Monza and Spa.

With Felipe out neither Mercedes cars came out for the remaining time in Q1 as they felt none of the lesser teams would beat their time. Whilst that makes some sense they are not learning anything either but they do save a set of tyres.

So as the session closes Fernando is in P1 with a mid 1.46 followed by Sebastian & Mark. As discussed earlier Robert has shot the Renault up to P4 and could mix the front runners up. We lose Timo, Lucas, Jarno, Heikki, new boy Chrstian Klien in the HRT car, Bruno and of course the luckless Felipe. Lewis finishes in ninth whilst Jenson was up in sixth.

They all launch out into Q2 and this will be a tight battle up front. Fernando found a glitch and had to go back to the pits for the engine to be remapped. Then out of the Blue, Lewis ran the fastest lap ever round the Marina Bay circuit in almost a flat 1.46 some half a second faster than Sebastian albeit Jenson was now third yet Michael in last place.

Jaime is driving fantastic and now running ninth which is great for Toro Rosso. Fernando came back out and the car is now running OK as he usurps Lewis into the 1.45's and it now appears all the top runners are going to have to run in the 45's to stand a chance.

As Q2 finishes things remain the same at the front and the only real point of note is that Michael is in the top 10 for the first time since Silverstone. So we lost Jaime, Nico H, Vitaly, Sebastien, Nick, Adrian and Vitantonio.

Going int Q3 we now have the five contenders for the championship in the top five positions so we await the pole lap session in Q3 with interest. Sebastian obviously got something wrong on his first Q3 run as he finished up seventh whilst Fernando and Lewis were running one and two.

In they all come for another set of tyres, refuel and off they go again. They are all finding turn two a problem as it is still a bit damp and with twenty three turns it is a very difficult track under pressure.

So we finish with Fernando on pole followed by Sebastian, Lewis, Jenson, Mark and still the top five in the championship are in the first five places. Then we have Rubens, Nico, Robert, Michael and Kamui.

The grid is going to give us a great race tomorrow and I am sure we all await with interest.

Singapore Grand Prix

So here we are at the race which has caused much controversary of late with the allegations that Renault forced Nelson Piquet Junior to crash at last years race (2008) so Alonso could win. The resultant FIA Council meeting concluded that Flavio Briatorre would be excluded from any involvement with events controlled by the FIA for life and Pat Simonds for 5 years.

Nelson Piquet was however given immunity as he was the one who offered the information to the FIA. I still find the saga difficult to accept within the sport I love and feel Nelson should have a penalty. He was the one that crashed the car at the perfect moment to allow Alonso, who had just pitted, to go on and win the race after the Safety Car period.

As if F1 hasn't had enough controversy over the past 2 seasons we are then faced with what has been called the worst act of its type in sporting history. Let us all hope we can finish the 2009 season off without any other controversy and that we can get back to the sport and start again with a clean sheet in 2010.

Back to F1. The teams came to Singapore with the 2009 World Champion in the balance. Battle was once more joined between, Red Bull and Brawn. Quali 1 saw a change for the first 5 drop outs as we saw Heidfeld, Liuzzi, Grosjean, and Alguersauri and the luckless Fizzi who just can't get to grips with the Ferrari. It is sad but Fizzi simply hasn't got there yet and doesn't seem to be any nearer.

Quali 2 came as a disaster for Jenson who finished 11th and not happy with his lot as once again he was outpaced by Rubens. The same luck applied to Kimi who coudn't get the Ferrari set up so both Ferrari's failed to get into Quali 1. So we lost Jarno who was again outpaced by Timo in his flying Toyota, Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Jenson and Kimi.

Into Quali 3 and without doubt Lewis was the star of the day. He launched his Mclaren into pole with a lap untouched by anyone else. His nearest challenger was the usual Sebastian Vettel who finished in P2. Nico was flying and put his Williams into P3 closely followed by Mark Webber. Alonso followed Mark and Timo (Glock) in his Toyota just pipped Robert (Kubica) and to finish off it was Heikki, Rubens and Kazuki.

Into race day and Lewis remained hot favourite and from the flag he was never really headed apart from pit stops. Timo drove a hero's race into second and he really had the Toyota humming and the same applied to Nico until he came out of the pits and crossed the dreaded White line. As is normal with this offence it brings an automatic drive through and put him back down to 11th.

The title contenders were basically locked together finishing in line astern with Sebastian (4), Rubens (5) and Jenson (6). This result tightened the championship and they went to Brazil with all 3 still in the fight albeit Jenson still has the edge.

So after returning to the scene of the Renault debacle last year all went off without a hitch, off to Japan.