F1: Vettel wins in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel has won the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix. This is really the first weekend since the start of the V6 era that the Mercedes works team have really struggled for pace. As a result of their struggles, which the team blame on the tyres, Vettel, in his SF15-T, took the first non-Mercedes powered pole position in this era. His teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, also finished on the podium in P3, making this the first double Ferrari podium in a long time. Whilst they were expecting themselves to be competitive, they never expected to finish ahead of the 2 Mercedes cars. However, that was precisely what they did, with Ricciardo crossing the line in P2, and Kyvat, after a whole round of botched pitstops, in P6. However, a podium isn’t enough for Ricciardo; he believes that should the intruder not have been on track (Someone managed to get through security to take a stroll along the track. He was later arrested.), the safety car would not have come out, which would have given him a much better chance of closing up and passing Ferrari. Rosberg piloted the lone W06 across the line. As previously mentioned, the Mercedes team struggled for pace all weekend, citing issues with tyre temperature as the cause for the woefully slow lap times. Hamilton, who managed to fend off Rosberg and the cars behind him for much of the time he was on track, suffered a problem with his throttle pedal, which prevented his Merc from going wide-open throttle. At this point, Hamilton, still hot in the championship fight, decided to retire from the grand prix to save his engine for a later charge in the championship.

OneShift Editorial Team

21 Sep 2015

Bottas, like Rosberg, was the only finisher for his team. Whilst at certain points the Finn was matching Rosberg’s pace, he was never really on par to challenge the works team. He eventually had to defend against the hardcharging Red Bull of Danii Kyvat, which meant he fell even further back. Massa collided with Hulkenburg after the first round of pitstops, which caused a puncture and an unscheduled pitstop. He then suffered issues with his gearbox, which forced him out of the race.

Perez finished 7th to score a much needed 6 points for the Force India team. The promising pace the Silverstone-based team showed on Friday returned, and allowed the Mexican to recover from his lowly qualifying position. Hulkenberg tangled with Massa, which caused significant damage and his subsequent retirement from the race. He has always been awarded a 3 place grid drop as a result.

Max Verstappen finished in P8, and was clearly the driver of the day. After stalling on the grid and being lapped as his STR10 was restarted, points looked unlikely. However, thanks to the Safety Car, and a brilliant pit strategy by the Toro Rosso boys, he was able to make some impressive passes to recover to his finishing position. However, it isn’t without controversy; Sainz, who finished 9th, was on fresher rubber, and the team was keen to let him through to have a go at Perez. However, Max refused to let Sainz through. Whilst the team was initially upset by his decision, the team eventually agreed with his viewpoint, agreeing that he deserved the P8 as a result of his epic recovery drive.

Felipe Nasr claws a single point for Sauber. Ericsson comes home in P11.

The 2 Lotus cars finished P12 and P13, mostly due to collision damage and poor pitstops.

Debutant Alex Rossi finishes ahead of his more experience teammate Will Stevens. Alex Rossi may have contributed to a few collisions on race day itself, but it isn’t entirely his fault; his radio failed, which meant he was driving blind and thus, wasn’t aware he could unlap himself behind the safety car. Post restart, and to take avoiding action, Button swerved off line to avoid him, and took a relatively unusual line to pass Maldonado, which ended up with the duo tangling.

It is yet another double DNF for McLaren. Both cars suffered from cooling issues all grand prix long, and both their gearboxes gave up before the end of the race.

Pictures used for illustration purposes only.

Credits: