The 2008 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix Thread
Moderators: cmlean, Ed, The Qualiflyer, The Heretic
Congratulations to Fernando Alonso on winning his first race of the season. Following the drama he suffered during qualifying, luck was on his side as he made his pit shortly before the safety car was deployed (as a result of his team-mate crashing) and benefited greatly from that.
He went on to win the race and showing everyone that he still is one of the best drivers out there.
Well done to Nico Rosberg finishing second despite having to pit when the pit lane was closed and got penalised for it. He clearly showed that even then you can bounce back if you are determined enough.
Hamilton managed to finish 3rd and greatly improve his chances of becoming the new World Champion. He benefited from Ferrari's misfortunes but some may say that he was on the recieving end of a few misfortunes too.
Timo Glock managed to finish 4th and that is another impressive result from the Toyota driver while another well done goes to Vettel for finishing in the points in the Toro Rosso.
Nick Heidfeld managed to finish in 6th again showing consistency while David Coulthard who had a chance to finish on the podium at one stage managed to salvage two points for Red Bull and Nakajima did well to finish in the points.
Raikkonen crashed out while running in 5th, that wasn't expected from the World Champion however his perfomance this season as whole wasn't expected either.
Hard luck to Massa as the replay clearly shows that he got the green signal to go yet the refuelling hose was still engaged. That and the penalty ruined his race. After that though he seemed to have lost interest.
Your thoughts and the driver of the day ?
___________________________________________
Team by team summary following the race (GMM):
RENAULT
After qualifying's bitter disappointment, luck, the safety car, strategy and consistently good pace delivered justice for Fernando Alonso as he raced to victory for the first time in more than a year. "We had a bit of luck, but we had the pace," the delighted Spaniard said. Ironically it was teammate Nelson Piquet's heavy crash that brought out the safety car and triggered the strategy chaos that sped Alonso to the top of the order. "I'm ok," the Brazilian rued after returning to the paddock.
WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Just like Alonso, Nico Rosberg was lucky on Sunday, but he has also been quick all weekend, managing to negate the disadvantage of a stop-go penalty for pitting under the controversial safety car rules to finish a strong second. He also pulled off a daring and rare overtaking move to get past Jarno Trulli's Toyota, and held off Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps. Kazuki Nakajima bagged the final point for his eighth place.
MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Hamilton emerged from the safety car shuffle third at the flag, extending his championship lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who had superior pace from pole position in the early laps, from 1 to 7 points. The Briton spent a lot of time unable to pass David Coulthard, and in the final laps he ran behind Williams' Nico Rosberg. "I didn't want to take chances, particularly as the Ferraris were outside the points," Hamilton said. Team boss Ron Dennis confirmed: "We advised Lewis not to attempt to overtake Nico." Heikki Kovalainen finished tenth at the end of a bad race, during which he suffered damage in a hit from Robert Kubica, had to queue in the pits behind his teammate, and nursed home wearing brakes.
TOYOTA
Timo Glock crowned his strong Singapore weekend with fourth place, in front of Sebastian Vettel following an overtaking move on the Monza winner. "My goal at the beginning of the year was to score 20 points so I am very satisfied to have achieved that," said the German. Jarno Trulli's weekend was not as good, but the safety car shuffle even had him in the lead at one point and heading for fifth place, until a hydraulics problem ended his race.
TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
After his Monza win, Vettel finished fifth in Singapore, with teammate Sebastien Bourdais out of the points in 12th. "We feel the characteristics of the next circuits on the calendar should better suit our package," said team boss Franz Tost.
BMW-SAUBER
Robert Kubica's penalty for pitting under the safety car was not his only problem en route to just 11th place; the Pole also struggled physically with the Singapore track. "The visibility was getting worse and worse as I was getting tired," said Kubica, who urged organisers to smooth out some of the bumps ahead of F1's return in 2009. "Over the final fifteen laps I had an incredible headache," he admitted. Nick Heidfeld finished fifth.
RED BULL-RENAULT
Like winner Alonso, Mark Webber was well poised to benefit from the safety car shakeup in Singapore. "It would have been nice to share the podium with him today, with him winning and me second," said the Australian after retiring with a broken gearbox. David Coulthard, who had a pitstop mishap when the lollipop was prematurely lifted, finished seventh, only his second points finish of 2008. "I'm not going to point any fingers. It's just one of those things," said the Scot, after spending much of his night fending off Hamilton. The mechanic knocked over in the melee hurt his ankle and burned his thumb but is otherwise "okay", team boss Christian Horner said.
HONDA
Rubens Barrichello retired with an electrical problem, and while Jenson Button fared better, his ninth place also delivered no points.
FERRARI
An unmitigated disaster for Ferrari, especially Massa's title challenge, whose 1 point deficit to Hamilton increased to 7 points with a key team mistake that left him 13th at the flag. The floored mechanic was lucky to escape serious injury when Massa, wrongly shown a green light on Ferrari's unique 'traffic lights' pitstop gantry, ripped the fuel hose from the rig, then incurring a drive-through penalty for steering into the path of Adrian Sutil. "It's hard to deal with losing in this fashion a race that was within our grasp," said the pole sitter, who easily held off Hamilton in the early stages. With only a few laps to go, Kimi Raikkonen crashed out of fifth place at the now notorious turn 10 chicane.
FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Force India's bad weekend did not improve on Sunday, when Giancarlo Fisichella finished dead last on the road despite running as high as third at one point, while teammate Sutil crashed. "Felipe spun, I avoided a crash with him only to go into the barrier myself," rued the German.
He went on to win the race and showing everyone that he still is one of the best drivers out there.
Well done to Nico Rosberg finishing second despite having to pit when the pit lane was closed and got penalised for it. He clearly showed that even then you can bounce back if you are determined enough.
Hamilton managed to finish 3rd and greatly improve his chances of becoming the new World Champion. He benefited from Ferrari's misfortunes but some may say that he was on the recieving end of a few misfortunes too.
Timo Glock managed to finish 4th and that is another impressive result from the Toyota driver while another well done goes to Vettel for finishing in the points in the Toro Rosso.
Nick Heidfeld managed to finish in 6th again showing consistency while David Coulthard who had a chance to finish on the podium at one stage managed to salvage two points for Red Bull and Nakajima did well to finish in the points.
Raikkonen crashed out while running in 5th, that wasn't expected from the World Champion however his perfomance this season as whole wasn't expected either.
Hard luck to Massa as the replay clearly shows that he got the green signal to go yet the refuelling hose was still engaged. That and the penalty ruined his race. After that though he seemed to have lost interest.
Your thoughts and the driver of the day ?
___________________________________________
Team by team summary following the race (GMM):
RENAULT
After qualifying's bitter disappointment, luck, the safety car, strategy and consistently good pace delivered justice for Fernando Alonso as he raced to victory for the first time in more than a year. "We had a bit of luck, but we had the pace," the delighted Spaniard said. Ironically it was teammate Nelson Piquet's heavy crash that brought out the safety car and triggered the strategy chaos that sped Alonso to the top of the order. "I'm ok," the Brazilian rued after returning to the paddock.
WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Just like Alonso, Nico Rosberg was lucky on Sunday, but he has also been quick all weekend, managing to negate the disadvantage of a stop-go penalty for pitting under the controversial safety car rules to finish a strong second. He also pulled off a daring and rare overtaking move to get past Jarno Trulli's Toyota, and held off Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps. Kazuki Nakajima bagged the final point for his eighth place.
MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Hamilton emerged from the safety car shuffle third at the flag, extending his championship lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who had superior pace from pole position in the early laps, from 1 to 7 points. The Briton spent a lot of time unable to pass David Coulthard, and in the final laps he ran behind Williams' Nico Rosberg. "I didn't want to take chances, particularly as the Ferraris were outside the points," Hamilton said. Team boss Ron Dennis confirmed: "We advised Lewis not to attempt to overtake Nico." Heikki Kovalainen finished tenth at the end of a bad race, during which he suffered damage in a hit from Robert Kubica, had to queue in the pits behind his teammate, and nursed home wearing brakes.
TOYOTA
Timo Glock crowned his strong Singapore weekend with fourth place, in front of Sebastian Vettel following an overtaking move on the Monza winner. "My goal at the beginning of the year was to score 20 points so I am very satisfied to have achieved that," said the German. Jarno Trulli's weekend was not as good, but the safety car shuffle even had him in the lead at one point and heading for fifth place, until a hydraulics problem ended his race.
TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
After his Monza win, Vettel finished fifth in Singapore, with teammate Sebastien Bourdais out of the points in 12th. "We feel the characteristics of the next circuits on the calendar should better suit our package," said team boss Franz Tost.
BMW-SAUBER
Robert Kubica's penalty for pitting under the safety car was not his only problem en route to just 11th place; the Pole also struggled physically with the Singapore track. "The visibility was getting worse and worse as I was getting tired," said Kubica, who urged organisers to smooth out some of the bumps ahead of F1's return in 2009. "Over the final fifteen laps I had an incredible headache," he admitted. Nick Heidfeld finished fifth.
RED BULL-RENAULT
Like winner Alonso, Mark Webber was well poised to benefit from the safety car shakeup in Singapore. "It would have been nice to share the podium with him today, with him winning and me second," said the Australian after retiring with a broken gearbox. David Coulthard, who had a pitstop mishap when the lollipop was prematurely lifted, finished seventh, only his second points finish of 2008. "I'm not going to point any fingers. It's just one of those things," said the Scot, after spending much of his night fending off Hamilton. The mechanic knocked over in the melee hurt his ankle and burned his thumb but is otherwise "okay", team boss Christian Horner said.
HONDA
Rubens Barrichello retired with an electrical problem, and while Jenson Button fared better, his ninth place also delivered no points.
FERRARI
An unmitigated disaster for Ferrari, especially Massa's title challenge, whose 1 point deficit to Hamilton increased to 7 points with a key team mistake that left him 13th at the flag. The floored mechanic was lucky to escape serious injury when Massa, wrongly shown a green light on Ferrari's unique 'traffic lights' pitstop gantry, ripped the fuel hose from the rig, then incurring a drive-through penalty for steering into the path of Adrian Sutil. "It's hard to deal with losing in this fashion a race that was within our grasp," said the pole sitter, who easily held off Hamilton in the early stages. With only a few laps to go, Kimi Raikkonen crashed out of fifth place at the now notorious turn 10 chicane.
FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Force India's bad weekend did not improve on Sunday, when Giancarlo Fisichella finished dead last on the road despite running as high as third at one point, while teammate Sutil crashed. "Felipe spun, I avoided a crash with him only to go into the barrier myself," rued the German.
Last edited by Ed on Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JayVee
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This was completely unexepected but a very well deserved and worthy win for Alonso The Cute.
Great to see you back on the top step of the podium
Perhaps the bad luck you got in qualifying was erased with that safety car but you had the pace and would have won on merit regardless.
You are the best out there making the car go beyond its limits and matching the pace of the Ferraris.
I am so happy
I'm back and yes supporting Alonso "The Cute" in the Ferrari!
Congratulations to Fernando on a well deserved and emphatic victory. Well done to Nico who really drove an outstanding stint prior to serving his stop go penalty.
Formula One is really strange . . . it really appears to suck in or amplify good and bad fortune. Lets face it who would have believed me if I had said before the race that Felipe will be half a second a lap quicker than anyone else but he is not going to win because he is going to leave the pits with his refueling hose still attached? And his pit crew are going to have to carry the hose the whole way back up the pitlane looking every bit like classic Chinese Dragon Dancers. Oh and just in case Felipe still has a chance of winning he will also get a drive through penalty for being released into the path of another car. An infraction Ferrari have already committed and been penalised for! It's like I am watching a movie scripted by the guys who wrote Dallas or are currently writing Emerdale Farm . . .
Formula One is really strange . . . it really appears to suck in or amplify good and bad fortune. Lets face it who would have believed me if I had said before the race that Felipe will be half a second a lap quicker than anyone else but he is not going to win because he is going to leave the pits with his refueling hose still attached? And his pit crew are going to have to carry the hose the whole way back up the pitlane looking every bit like classic Chinese Dragon Dancers. Oh and just in case Felipe still has a chance of winning he will also get a drive through penalty for being released into the path of another car. An infraction Ferrari have already committed and been penalised for! It's like I am watching a movie scripted by the guys who wrote Dallas or are currently writing Emerdale Farm . . .
Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button World Champions 