F1: Looking back at the Singapore Grand Prix
It was another storming race for the Red Bull guys as Vettel pretty much lead the entire field from start to finish. Rosberg got a great start and managed to outbrake Vettel into turn 1, but fell off the track immediately after, allowing Vettel to get right back up. There was no contact in the opening laps, with no safety car up to the 1/3 mark. That was set to change, as Riccardo locked up into the Turn 18 and sent his STR8 into the barriers. This brought out the safety car, causing a huge reaction in the pitlane as teams scramble to change their tyres. The safety car was called in on lap 30, and the race restarted with Vettel once again dominating the restart. In just the first lap after the restart alone, Vettel gained nearly 2 seconds on his fellow countryman Rosberg. At this point, the Lotuses and Mclarens switched to a 1 stop strategy. The strategy didn’t benefit Grosjean though, for, with about ½ distance to go, the Frenchman had to pull into the pits to recharge air into a regulator that controls engine air consumption. This setback meant that the then 6th placed Grosjean fell all the way back to last place. He retired 6 laps later.
Meanwhile, the 2 Mclaren boys sat pretty in P3 and P4, only to find a hard charging Raikkonen up their tail. The Lotus, famed for how it conserves its tyres, had rubber of similar age to those on the 2 MP4-28s, but since the Mclaren uses up its tyres at a faster rate, Raikkonen could easily slip past the both of them. From then on it was a slippery slope downhill for the Mclaren duo as both battled with tyres way past their prime. On lap 54, Raikkonen mounted an enourmous charge at Button’s Mclaren into turn 14, passing him and leaving him vulnerable to Perez behind. At the same time, Webber got past Hulkenburg’s Sauber and was on the back of Perez ready to attack. The Mercs lundged at the Sauber as well, passing the slower car with relative ease. Di resta was set to mount a challenge too. However, an oversteering Force India and a braking mistake sent the Scot into the barrier at Turn 7. He suffered from a damaged nose cone and looked set to rejoin the track. However, his VJM006 seemed less than happy with going into reverse. With smoking hot brakes and the inability to get the car reversed, Paul decided to call it a day and got out of his car. No safety car for this incident as it occurred off the track.
Towards the closing stages of the race, Webber radioed his crew informing them of a mechanical failure. Within the next lap, Webber was told to short shift in a vain attempt to prolong the lifespan of his ailing gearbox. On lap 60, another technical failure saw Webber’s already poor RB9 catch fire. He was out of the race with 1 lap to go, but was still classified as he completed more than 75% race distance.
Vettel took the victory, but the limelight was not on him; it was on second placed Alonso, who repays the favour and stopped his Ferrari to give Webber a lift back to the pits. This act of sportsmanship though, was frowned upon by the FIA and both drivers have been deemed to infringe the sporting regulations. Since Webber has already infringed the rules twice, he was slapped with a heafty 10 place grid drop at the next race in Korea.
Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen stood on the podium, with Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenburg and Adrian Sutil coming home in the points. Maldonado came in 11th, Gutierrez 12th, Bottas 13th, Vergne 14th and Webber is classified in P15 in his last Singapore grand prix. Meanwhile, Van der Garde came in first of the 4 back markers in 16th, with the 2 Marussias of Chilton and Bianchi in 17th and 18th, and Pic in 19th. Diresta is classified in P20.
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