Highlights from the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix

The Singapore Grand Prix saw plenty of action over the weekend

Qualification results

The Singapore Grand Prix from the outset in 2008 has always proved to be quite a fascinating race. Some kind of controversy, drama and the spectacle of the race under start lit Singapore skies make the race even more exciting fo the fans. The GP had its 7th running this year. From the driver point of view, this race is perhaps the hardest on the physical stress with the race almost running the full 2 hrs distance. Also, the humidity around makes the cockpit like a boiler. Coming into the race, the championship leader Nico Rosberg was through his fiasco at Monza, and matched the pace of his team-mate in the qualifying. Owing to the high downforce nature of the track, as expected the Red Bulls were among the early pace-setters and were giving the silver cars a strong competition for the pole. For once, it seemed that the Mercs would not

For once, it seemed that the Mercs would not run away with the pole position. In Q1, the Ferraris joined in the fun by grabbing the top 2 spots, but the Mercs seemed like sand bagging by doing their lap times on the soft compound, and thus saving a set of the super softs for Q2. Q2 saw Rosberg improve by nearly 1.5 secs. Q3 though would be the most tightly competed session for this year. Hamilton pipping his team mate by just 7 thousandths of a second. The Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel blocked the 2nd row with the Ferraris and Williams’ sharing the 3rd and 4th row. The two rookies Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat make up the top 10.

Rosberg’s retirement from the race

The night started off with a nightmarish start for Rosberg. From Friday till 15 minutes prior to the race everything seemed smooth, and just then the law of averages struck the championship leader. It was bad luck as Murphy struck him with an Electronics issue on his car steering which meant he was stranded on the grid during the formation lap. He was then pushed into the pits for a pit lane start, and got his steering wheel changed with none of the electronic gizmos working. A race into the unknown for Rosberg. The man of

The man of race starts Fernando Alonso was off to another electric start, only thing this time he was ain’t able slow down enough into the first corner with Vettel on the inside. Alonso had to cut the corner and ran straight. To give away the advantage he gave back the position to Vettel and slotted into third. Vettel overtook a slow off the line Ricciardo, and into 2nd place by turn 3. After the initial stopping and changing, the race settled into a nice pace and looked like a game of strategies. Lewis ran off into the distance, while his team mate was found struggling with power input from the ERS. Low top speed and was struggling to pass a Marussia and a Caterham. Even the graphic on the steering wheel was showing that the gears were slipping during the shifts taking 2 gears at a time. The condition was so bad, that Rosberg didn’t even have the pit lane speed limiter working.

The first pit stops went smooth for pretty much everyone apart for Rosberg. Mercedes planned a steering wheel change during the pit stop hoping for a Safety car outing which never disappointed the fans during the Singapore GP – A 100% track record for the safety car at the event. What seemed as the last roll of the dice didn’t work, and Rosberg had to retire from the race. With his teammate in the lead, he saw his 22-point lead melting away right in front of his eyes. Now that makes the Murphy strike a bit even – Lewis 3 to Rosberg’s 2.

Hamilton had a perfect pit stop strategy

The second pit stops saw the Ferraris on an aggressive strategy with another set of super softs, whereas the Red Bulls played the smart strategy with the soft compound tyres in the hope of the Safety car entry. Owing to his style of driving, Ricciardo was able to do a much lengthier 2nd run compared to his team mate Vettel. Just 5 to 6 laps into the 3rd stint, the Singapore GP held its 100% track record of the safety car entry – thanks to Force India’s Sergio Perez. Perez got his front wing damaged while challenging Sutil, and few corners later, his front wing went underneath the car and got smothered into pieces. With a lot of debris on the track, the safety car had to be deployed. The Ferraris came in for their 3rd stop of the night to change on to the soft compound. Lewis though made his 2nd pit stop just prior to the safety car entry, and thus stood out with a 3rd set of super softs fixed. For what was just a cleaning of the track, the safety car seemed to stay on for a longer time, and this is where the race got excited with jus 22 laps left in the race.

For what was just a cleaning of the track, the safety car seemed to stay on for a longer time, and this is where the race got excited with jus 22 laps left in the race. Withing these 22 laps, Lewis had to build up sufficient gap to make his 3rd pit stop as he had to change on to the soft tyre, whereas the cars of Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso have already done the same. The positives in favor of Lewis was the pace advantage of his Merc power unit, and the higher delta time between the 2 compounds of tyres. This is where the champion material in Lewis came out. He drove absolutely crazy for the next 15 laps doing qualifying runs and built up a substantial lead of 28 secs on Vettel. All this time he was building the gap, the idea of another safety car period was bothering him as that would be the end of his charge for race win. As said, “the brave make their own luck”, Hamilton came into the pits for his mandatory change of tyres, and slotted nicely behind Vettel. The freshness of the tyres made Vettel an easy prey, though with a breathtaking move under braking. The earlier 2nd stop for Vettel saw him struggling in the last 5 laps. Alonso was ready to pounce on any advantage produced by the Red Bulls racing each other. But, Vettel endured the Aussie storm and scored a

The freshness of the tyres made Vettel an easy prey, though with a breathtaking move under braking. The earlier 2nd stop for Vettel saw him struggling in the last 5 laps. Alonso was ready to pounce on any advantage produced by the Red Bulls racing each other. But, Vettel endured the Aussie storm and scored a much required 2nd place over his team mate. Ricciardo completed a double podium for Red Bull with Alonso in 4th. Massa had another clean start-finish race and came in a lonely 5th.

Hamilton now leads the championship race

The real action though was from 6th to 11th during the final stages. Vergne looked like a man on the move and with a point to prove to the F1 fraternity. Moves on Kimi and Bottas saw him take sixth even after getting two 5 second penalties in the course of the race. Perez came alive in the last 2 laps and moved up 4 places, and finishing in 7th. Bottas ran out of rubber which resulted in a slow puncture on the last lap. He dropped from 7th to 11th in the last lap. Jenson Button was looking good for a 6th till an electronic issue resulted in loss of power and drive. His first retirement since 2012 Korean GP which was 36 races ago. Nico Hulkenberg made sure that Force India go above McLaren in the standings after a double pts. finish. Kevin Magnussen completed a hat trick of getting penalised by the race steward – this time a smaller punishment of 5 second penalty for exceeding the track limits. The highlight of the race was him lifting his hands in the air to let the cool air run down his arm pits to cool down as he was reporting on the radio that his cockpit was burning and the fluid was too hot to drink. The other rookie Daniil Kvyat too faced the wrath of Singapore GP with a malfunction in the pumping device which pumps the fluid into his mouth.

The race saw the implementation of the stricter rules in the team radio transmissions which had to stop on the “driver coaching”. McLaren’s Eric Boullier complaining of Red Bull using coded msgs to Ricciardo, no exact idea of what kind of messages are permitted and what not made the TV audience stick their ears to the speakers on picking up any controversial messages. The race win for Lewis saw a change in the championship standings, as Lewis now leads only for the 2nd time throughout the 14 races. With nothing between the two favorites to win the championship, and just 5 more races with heavy weight race at Abu Dhabi, I hope that “Murphy” would not play any role between Rosberg and Lewis. Its quite amazing that the most powerful car on the grid this year is having the most reliability issues of some kind or the other as well. As said by Totto Wolff, “ Reliability issues should not decide the title”!!!