Lap 23 Lewis Hamilton
comes down the gears leading into turn 1, suddenly the engine is revving erratically,
the gears momentarily hovering between 3rd and 4th before
falling into neutral, forward momentum is rapidly decreasing. He urgently flicks
the paddles behind the steering wheel looking for a gear, hitting the steering
wheel in frustration as he sees his championship hopes depleting; Vettel is
already through into the lead and more crucially, Alonso has passed and on his
way to another podium.
Under the lights Sebastian Vettel kept his hopes alive of a
third consecutive drivers title after taking his second victory in Singapore
after a gearbox failure thwarted Lewis Hamilton’s charge to the top.
Behind, Jenson Button kept up McLaren’s points tally but
once again, Fernando Alonso got his Ferrari up to a podium slot to keep his
advantage a win away from anyone else. It’s looking rather ominous for his
rivals as no one can keep up the consistency the Spaniard is producing.
That won’t matter to Vettel tonight though, against the
backdrop of the lit up Skyscrapers and Marina Bay he threaded his Red Bull
through the streets to take what ended up being a fairly comfortable win that
hit the time limit of 2 hours after safety car interludes.
He was fastest in all three practice sessions, but couldn’t manage
pole position and he was visibly down about it after qualifying. Finding
himself third on the grid he leapt up to second almost straight away, tucking
in behind front row starter Pastor Maldonado into turn two and cutting to the
inside into turn three to set him up for a long time studying Lewis Hamilton’s
rear wing.
For the next 20 laps or so Hamilton and Vettel exchanged lap
times, with only Button and Maldonado just about able to keep up up to the
first pit stops. A few times the Red Bull closed, but you always got the
feeling Lewis could pull out a gap when he needed.
Lap 23 it all changed for Vettel, Lewis slowed and the Red
Bull flew into the lead and from then on it was a game of reversal as this time
a Red Bull kept the McLaren of Button at bay. Jenson didn’t get close enough to
have a go, apart from a wince inducing moment during the first safety car
period where Vettel braked suddenly and Button just missed smacking into the
back.
By the end Vettel had opened up a 6 second lead as Button’s
tyres faded. It was a good drive from him, passing Maldonado was important to
keep him in touch with Lewis, and he made some incisive passes after his first
pit stop to not lose much time at all as the field behind delayed their stops.
After the disaster at Monza it was crucial for Vettel to
score some big points, and he now
becomes the main challenger once again, 29 points behind, as he and
Alonso fight it out to see who’ll be first to grab a third world title.
Hamilton’s gearbox
woe as Button takes second
That closest challenger probably should have been Hamilton
who said he was comfortable in the lead and just maintaining a gap. If he
continued to the end he’d probably be sitting just 24 points behind Alonso, as
it is he’s 52 behind with just 6 races to go and 150 points remaining.
He couldn’t really afford anymore retirements now he
certainly can’t. It must have been gut wrenching for his McLaren team when on
lap 23 Lewis came down the gears into turn 1 while leading, suddenly the engine
is revving erratically, the gears momentarily flickering between 3rd
and 4th, before falling into neutral, forward momentum rapidly
decreasing.
He urgently flicks the paddles behind the steering wheel
looking for a gear, hitting the steering wheel in frustration as he sees his
championship hopes depleting; Vettel is already through into the lead and more
crucially, Alonso is passed and on his way to another podium.
His engineer came on the radio telling him they did
everything they could yesterday, so it seems like McLaren had a ticking time
bomb in the car and they were rather hoping it wouldn’t explode until after the
race.
A great shame for Hamilton who produced an outstanding lap
on Saturday to claim pole by half a second, but he’s not out of the title fight
yet, he’s in probably the fastest car at the moment and looked to be on his way
for his fourth win of the year. He’ll still have something to say in this title
fight yet.
Button made sure McLaren were still on the podium with
second place. He’s now three race wins behind Alonso, any chance of a comeback
is surely gone now. Still, he was a close contender all race and he’ll be
looking to continue his good recent form in Japan.
Alonso in good
fortune shocker
Alonso is just always there isn’t he? He knows his Ferrari
team need to keep up the development pace, they’ve now fallen behind McLaren
and Red Bull and they will eventually string some results together and come at
him.
But yet again Alonso is on the podium after starting 5th, his eighth of the
year. He didn’t look to have much pace in the opening stint, but once he’d
switched from the super soft tyres to the softs he was easily capable of matching
the and sometimes beating the pace of the leaders.
He had an intense fight with Maldonado which so many times
looked like it might end in tears, but Pastor just
about gave him enough space,
and when the Williams pitted for a third time during the first safety car and
then retired from hydraulic failure after an impressive race and qualifying, Alonso
was safe in third to keep him well on top of the title chase.
His team mate Felipe Massa drove a stormer to end up 8th
after starting 13th, but contact and a resulting puncture dropped
him to last at the end of the first lap. From then on in clear air he was
outpacing the leaders, admittedly the safety car helped him close up, but he
put his Ferrari right on the edge as he climbed into the points.
Nothing shows this more than when he squeezed passed Bruno
Senna, it looked like he’d lost the back of the car but he squirmed through and
put another decent move on Daniel Ricciardo to end up with 4 points.
di Resta puts in
impressive showing
Perhaps the star of the race was di Resta who at one point
looked like he could be on the podium. He was 6th in qualifying and
maintained that in the early stages of the race, managing his tyres carefully.
His second stop came on lap 33 as the Safety Car came out
for Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT to be picked out of the wall at turn 18. That was
four laps after Alonso had pitted and now he was right behind the Ferrari with
fresher tyres.
The race restarted on lap 39, but immediately the Safety Car
was back out after Michael Schumacher collided with Jean-Eric Vergne, this
unfortunately meant Alonso had more opportunity to rest his tyres, so any
critical drop off was never going to come.
But it was a great afternoon for the Scotsman and it will
have increased his exposure to the top teams should they come calling for next
year, well once Hamilton and Schumacher sort out their lives.
Safety cars once
again in Singapore
Talking of the safety car incidents, Karthikeyan’s was a
simple case of hitting a wall, Schumacher and Vergne’s seemed more like the
Mercedes drive was trying to use the Toro Rosso as a launch pad. It didn’t work
very well.
Obviously the immediate thing the media do is question
whether Michael’s too old for this as he looked to have made a major
misjudgement. However, mistakes are made by everyone and he’s more than proved
this year that he’s capable of still getting very good results.
More importantly he feels something may have gone wrong as
he’d already slowed for the corner before he locked up as it wouldn’t
decelerate. Not sure the team thought the car had a problem as they came on the
radio with a rather exasperated “what happened there?” The stewards also have
kindly awarded him a 10 place grid penalty for Japan.
Lotus lack the leading pace
One driver who was probably quite pleased Schumacher got so
spectacularly out the way was Kimi Raikkonen who’d been sitting behind him for the
entire race. The fact Schuey got rid of Vergne too and caused a second safety
car which meant he’d definitely be close enough to jump ahead of the two
stoppers who still needed to use both compounds such as Nico Hulkenberg and
Sergio Perez, and three stopping Mark Webber was even better.
After this he only had to have his team mate Romain Grosjean
move out the way and he ended up 6th after running a long time just
outside the top 10. It wasn’t a great weekend for Lotus, they never seemed to
have much pace to be near the front. The dark horse for the title needs some
development quickly if it’s not to be put back in the stables.
At least they should introduce their double DRS/passive
F-duct in Japan, we’ll see if that revitalises them, but for now Kimi has
dropped off the pace in the championship, but is still remarkably third in the
standings.
Grosjean came back after his race ban and kept out of
trouble to come home with a decent 7th
place.
Rest of the top 10
Nico Rosberg cheered the Mercedes team after his team mates
crash with a very good 5th place after starting 10th.
Both Mercedes had chosen not to set a time in Q3 so they could choose which
tyres to start. Surprisingly they just went with what the other top 10 runners
did, the super softs, albeit brand new sets.
However after running solidly in the opening stints and
coming out ahead of Grosjean in the first stops, the safety car ensured that
Rosberg, like Kimi would gain a few places as those around him stopped for
fresh boots. Hulkenberg and Perez’s days were scuppered by the safety cars as
well as eventually running into each other and Kamui Kobayashi. Sauber didn’t
have a good day.
Ninth was Daniel
Ricciardo who put in a great drive. As others fell and pitted around him,
he kept it on the track and defended well when Mark Webber hounded him for the
final few laps.
Webber couldn’t get through and he continues a poor run of
form, that was compounded when he gained a 20 second penalty for passing
Kobayashi off the track. I think that’s harsh myself but it sees him fall far
behind his team mate, I think any realistic shot at the title has gone for him.
Strange that since he won at Silverstone he’s hardly looked like getting near
the podium again.
Sergio Perez is eventually awarded the final point, but
major congratulations to Timo Glock and Marussia who take 12th place, their best result ever, and it moves them ahead of Caterham in the
constructors table.
Despite ‘kissing’ the wall, Glock put in a great drive and
while all around him got in trouble, he managed to still bring the car hume in a
fantastic result for the team.
In two weeks Formula 1 will be in the far-east for a double
header; Japan then a week later Korea. Can Alonso keep getting on the podium?
Will McLaren win then not retire that car a race later? Will they and Red Bull
actually string together results to catch the Spaniard? And will Kimi ever get
a win this year? We’ll find out in two weeks.
all photo's from autosport.com
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