By now I reckon you’ve had a chance to watch the race. But if not, race results and the aftermath under the fold…
One of the most visually stunning races on the F1 calendar and its only night race, the colorful bright lights of Singapore illuminated a sight that has been all too common for drivers not named Sebastian Vettel lately. The Red Bull ace and championship leader ran away and hid from the rest of the field nearly from the first turn of the street circuit. If one had a suspicious mind, one might believe there was something technically, how should we put it?, unique responsible for the vastly superior performance of Vettel’s chassis, especially in light of the fact that teammate Mark Webber’s car keeps breaking or suffering from malfunction (Webber was forced to retire on the very last lap prior to the checkered flag due to his engine expiring and catching on fire). But most likely it is just that magical symbiotic relationship between a special driver and a special chassis. Not only did Vettel win the race going away but Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso could do no better than finish 32.6 behind the German wunderkind, albeit with a very solid drive on worn tires to take second place after starting seventh. Lotus-Renault’s Kimi Räikkönen had a gutsy drive after qualifying 13th and battling back pain all weekend long to take the final step on the podium about 11 seconds back of Alonso. The flying Finn and once and future Ferrari man executed an electric outside pass on Jensen Button late in the race to catapult himself onto the 3rd step.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg had his shot to pass Vettel on the first corner of the opening lap but overcooked it and ran wide and Vettel was never to be vulnerable again. A testy Rosberg seemed to wilt a bit under the heat, humidity and longest race of the year in terms of time, as he exchanged complaints with his race engineer about the request to push hard on Webber and thus risk his long term performance. But he seemed to find a second wind when challenged from behind by teammate Lewis Hamilton, holding off the Briton for 4th with Lewis setting for 5th, a very good points haul for team Mercedes.
Aside from Webber, the most disappointed driver of the race had to be Lotus-Renault’s Romain Grosjean, who developed a pneumatic leak in the valve system and was forced to retire on lap 37 after an attempt to fix the issue mid-race did not work. The Frenchman had qualified 3rd and was showing good pace with a shot at a podium prior to the malfunction.
Top 10 finishers at the Singapore Grand Prix here:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 61 | 1:59:13.132 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 61 | +32.6 secs | 7 | 18 |
| 3 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 61 | +43.9 secs | 13 | 15 |
| 4 | 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 61 | +51.1 secs | 2 | 12 |
| 5 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 61 | +53.1 secs | 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 61 | +63.8 secs | 6 | 8 |
| 7 | 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 61 | +83.3 secs | 8 | 6 |
| 8 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 61 | +83.8 secs | 14 | 4 |
| 9 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 61 | +84.2 secs | 11 | 2 |
| 10 | 15 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 61 | +84.6 secs | 15 | 1 |
Two interesting if bizarre things happened directly after the race:
1) A stranded Mark Webber was given a lift back to the pits whilst sitting on Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, recalling the golden age of F1 in its image of camaraderie:
(Image from BBC Sport)
Jo Bonnier and Innes Ireland get a lift from Richie Ginther and his Honda in 1965–Image from www.f1-grandprixhistory.net
The stewards were not amused and handed Webber a reprimand and a 10-grid spot penalty for the next race in Korea (this being Webber’s third official reprimand of the season).
2) Seb Vettel was loudly booed by the Singapore fans as he accepted his first place trophy. Now, sure he’s probably going to win his 4th Drivers’ Championship in consecutive fashion and the dominant way he’s been winning lately is, shall we say, a little less than exciting. But can he help it if he’s the best driver in the best car? Unless you can prove that Red Bull and Vettel have some sort of unfair advantage (aside from Adrian Newey’s superior understanding of aerodynamics), booing excellence is bad form, no matter how much a formality that would appear to make the rest of the races on the schedule prior to his coronation.
Next race is the unloved and unglamorous Korean Grand Prix, Oct. 4-6th. The sooner that turkey gets dropped in favor of the Grand Prix of America in the New Jersey Palisades the better. Maybe 2014? Maybe never?