Singapore lights

A near on perfect backdrop of Marina Bay lighting up the night sky, for the first and only night race of the season which could have seen the title won by Sebastian Vettel.

The flood lit lights were on, rain on delay and all 24 cars ready and waiting for the five red lights.

Sebastian Vettel was off to a good start (again) leading the pack while teammate Mark Webber got of to a slower start leaving the door open for Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso to overtake with Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes was lucky to hang on to sixth after bumping over the kerb on Lap 1 however was confirmed over his radio he was ok to keep sixth position.

Lewis Hamilton made several clean cut passes gaining places in the first few laps while the battle for third was on between Webber and Alonso however Alonso was unable to maintain speed and tyre’s dropping off quickly, along with brake temperature problems.

Lap 12 and both Hamilton and Felipe Massa pit the lap before, the Ferrari managed to stay ahead though not for long as Hamilton attempted to overtake, misjudges and tears away the corner of his front wing and in turn puncturing Massa’s right rear tyre.

Hamilton, down in 16^th, was handed a driver through penalty for the incident to only see him fight back the positions for the rest of the race.

Rookie Paul di Resta had his best Grand Prix result of the season, who on Lap 16 was up to 3^rd but had to surrender his position to the faster car of Alonso however finished the GP in 6^th - the best of the cars outside the top three teams.

Schumacher had a frightening near take off from Sergio Perez Sauber as Schumacher tried to overtake, a close mirror image of Webber’s Valencia 2010 take off however Schumacher had a lucky escape not quite going airborne but a high impact crash hitting the barrier; he was ok and got out the car almost instantly.

Following the crash - we did make it to 30 laps - the safety car was out, usually a frequent appearance at street circuits especially in Singapore.

Four laps later and the safety car came in, Vettel was ahead of Button and it stayed that way for the rest of the race. Heikki Kovalainen narrowly missed shunting into Vettel in the pit lane after an unsafe release and towards the end of the race Button was catching Vettel however traffic made sure he ran out of laps and finished 2^nd behind the Red Bull in 1^st while teammate Webber finished 3^rd with Fernando settling for 4^th in front of Hamilton.

Jaime Alguersuari crashed out on Lap 56 colliding into the barrier, the safety car was needed at the race continued, other retirements from the race along with Alguersuari and Schumacher were Timo Glock on lap 9 and Jarno Trulli on Lap 47.

Fastest lap: Jenson Button: 1:48.454

Singapore 2011

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The podium

This is from after qualifying but switch Mark and Jenson round and we have the podium order (couldn't find a podium picture when i wanted to)

[Fireworks after the race]

The first fly-away has now passed and we move onto Japan, where, more thank likely, we will see Sebastian Vettel be crowned World Champion and a fitting place it will be... unless he finishes 11th or lower.

Let's hope the rain isn't like last year but if it is, Red Bull will win the boat races too!

Getting up in the early hours of the morning to watch it?!

Only in Italia!

In the sweltering heat, the Tifosi were out in full force at the Italian Grand Prix. Surrounded by a sea of red the cars lined up on the grid ready for 53 laps at Monza.

Drama started on Lap 1 with what could have been a nastier crash caused by Tonio Liuzzi in his HRT, sliding along the grass run off and into mid fielders making their way around Turn 1, he swept up Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov, with several others having to avoid the incident.

This saw the Safety car come out till Lap 4, where Fernando Alonso took an early lead -a great sight for the passionate Tifosi- over Sebastian and now had to fight to retain it.

On the restart Mark Webber was a little too eager on trying to overtake Felipe Massa and knocked off his front wing under his tyre’s, Massa spun but was able to rejoin with no obvious damage to the car meanwhile Webber soon crashed out, the first time a Red Bull retired this year.

Lap 12 and the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher was in full swing, both eager to beat each other, with Schumacher showing a flare of his old racing with a naughty two move block on Hamilton, receiving a radio message from Ross Brawn to “make sure you leave room at Ascari”

Through the pits and Vettel takes the lead from Alonso with both McLarens hot on his hooves (get it?)

Hamilton slips up unable to keep up the momentum and Button was able to pass him, next up, Alonso.

Lap 36, as Vettel pits for new tyres, Alonso was slow out of the corners where Button was able to take advantage and pass him for second. Five World Champions were in the top five.

The now permanent for 2011 Renault driver, Bruno Senna had a challenging but exciting race and was able to cleanly over take Sebastien Buemi for 9^th entering the points for him and the team.

The last few laps and Hamilton was closing the gap on Alonso however he wasn’t able to make anything of it and time ran out. Sebastian Vettel won again in Monza, 3 years since his first win driving for Toro Rosso, an emotional win for the German. Joining Vettel on the podium was Jenson Button in 2^nd and Fernando Alonso, pleasing the passionate Ferrari fans with a podium spot in 3^rd.

Retirements of the race: Both Saubers retired out of the race- Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez along with Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Vitaly Petrov, Nico Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi.

Although Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line as the chequered flag went out, he was +14 laps down, a great effort and good seat time but he wasn’t classified.  


Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton: 1:26.187

 RESULTS:

The Podium celebrations:

[l-r Jenson Button (2nd) Sebastian Vettel (1st) Fernando Alonso (3rd)]

This has to be the best podium celebrations on the calendar. Incredible.

So the European races have drawn to a close and won't be back till 2012, it's gone fast, it's been great and the races have been exciting.

We now (i say that like i'm actually going, i'm not but i can dream!) move on to the fly-away races, first up is Singapore. I love the night race, the location, the track and the atmosphere. F1 Rocks will also be special along with the prospect of the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel possibly becoming double world champion! As much as i'd like the championship to go to the wire at Brazil, let's face it, it isn't going to happen, Vettel will be crowned.

Don't miss it!