This weekend F1 heads to its one and only night race of the season on the streets of Singapore. The Marina Bay Street Circuit has a length of 5.073 km and have 23 turns (15 left and 8 right handed turns) was first used in 2008 for the first ever night race. That race was won by Renault’s Fernando Alonso, but later that race was surrounded by a race fixing scandal. This season, the kind of topsy turvy championship we are having where after every race a new points leader is seen in world championship standings, this race is very important because as it is a street circuit, every slightest mistake could result in a retirement and also a safety car period to follow. The circuit lap record is put by Kimi Raikkonen in 2008 who put a lap of 1:45.599 in a Ferrari. With the chances of rain are a bit higher then the previous 2 season, this race could well be a race of attraction.
The points table situation after the Italian GP is as follows:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Webber 187 1. Red Bull-Renault 350
2. Hamilton 182 2. McLaren-Mercedes 347
3. Alonso 166 3. Ferrari 290
4. Button 165 4. Mercedes 158
5. Vettel 163 5. Renault 127
6. Massa 124 6. Force India-Mercedes 58
7. Rosberg 112 7. Williams-Cosworth 47
8. Kubica 108 8. Sauber-Ferrari 27
9. Schumacher 46 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10
10. Sutil 45
11. Barrichello 31
12. Kobayashi 21
13. Petrov 19
14. Hulkenberg 16
15. Liuzzi 13
16. Buemi 7
17. De la Rosa 6
18. Alguersuari 3
This race also sees 2 drivers for the first time racing this season, Nick Heidfeld for Sauber, and Christian Klien for HRT. Heidfeld is replacing Pedro De la Rosa while Klien is replacing SakonYamamoto.
During the Practice Session 1 on Friday drivers learn one thing specially that even if its not raining 1-hour before the start of the session it takes another hour for the standing water on the track to dry on the racing line but there was still puddle of water present off the racing line, it is quite important for the race as even if there was no rain before the race start but if the track is damp it would be quite difficult for racing on slicks and intermediate or wets will be needed for the race. As expected, Mark Webber of RedBull posted the fastest lap time in Practice Session 1 with 1:54.589 while Micheal Schumacher of Mercedes was 0.119 secs behind him and Adrian Sutil of Force India was on 3rd 0.238 secs down on Webber. At one point Michal was about to take the first top spot of this season after his return but Webber’s idea of changing to slicks in the last 15 minutes of one and half hour session worked in his favor and he gets the top spot and demotes Micheal from it. Virgin and Lotus give some track time to their reserve drivers Jerome D’Ambrosio and Fairuz Fauzi respectively. Here are the first Session timings:
Singapore GP Practice Session 1
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:54.589 10
2. Schumacher Mercedes 1:54.708 + 0.119 24
3. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:54.827 + 0.238 15
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:55.137 + 0.548 12
5. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:55.160 + 0.571 20
6. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:55.333 + 0.744 12
7. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:55.510 + 0.921 15
8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:55.523 + 0.934 15
9. Kubica Renault 1:55.672 + 1.083 11
10. Petrov Renault 1:55.914 + 1.325 20
11. Alonso Ferrari 1:56.090 + 1.501 12
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.339 + 1.750 22
13. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1:56.458 + 1.869 18
14. Rosberg Mercedes 1:56.598 + 2.009 8
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:56.603 + 2.014 12
16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:56.615 + 2.026 17
17. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:56.840 + 2.251 14
18. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:56.884 + 2.295 9
19. Massa Ferrari 1:57.760 + 3.171 22
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:59.034 + 4.445 19
21. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:59.275 + 4.686 16
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:59.783 + 5.194 23
23. Klien HRT-Cosworth 2:03.424 + 8.835 17
24. Fauzi Lotus-Cosworth 2:05.694 + 11.105 11
Practice Session 2 starts on a dry track and through out, the session remains dry. This session sees the usual contenders back at the front and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel takes the top spot with a lap of 1:46.660 followed by his team mate, Webber on 2nd with only 0.627 secs behind and Jenson Button of McLaren with another 1.030 secs behind. The session saw Alonso retiring when he stalls his car after a mistake which cause him to go off the track and during his returning back to the track. He stalls as soon as he reaches the race and has to retire 20 minutes before the end of session. Lotus and Virgin returned with their normal racing line up for this session as Trulli and Lucas di Grassi returns for their respective teams.
During the second session Force India’s Adrian Sutil goes over the kerbs of the turn 10 and damages his car’s left front wishbone and returns to the pits with no steering for left front tyre. He got fined $10,000 for dangerous driving by the race stewards.
Here are the second Practice Session timings:
Singapore GP Practice Session 2
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:46.660 29
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:47.287 + 0.627 27
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.690 + 1.030 28
4. Alonso Ferrari 1:47.718 + 1.058 20
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.818 + 1.158 28
6. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:48.302 + 1.642 31
7. Massa Ferrari 1:48.341 + 1.681 28
8. Rosberg Mercedes 1:48.679 + 2.019 26
9. Kubica Renault 1:48.855 + 2.195 15
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:48.889 + 2.229 31
11. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:49.153 + 2.493 32
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.438 + 2.778 30
13. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.558 + 2.898 26
14. Petrov Renault 1:49.608 + 2.948 30
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:49.896 + 3.236 28
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:49.984 + 3.324 11
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.191 + 3.531 31
18. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.896 + 4.236 35
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:51.878 + 5.218 30
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:52.150 + 5.490 22
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:53.431 + 6.771 25
22. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:53.526 + 6.866 27
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:54.725 + 8.065 27
24. Klien HRT-Cosworth 1:55.542 + 8.882 25
At the end of both sessions one thing is clear that RedBull is highly likely to take another pole this season which will take their pole tally for this season to 13 out of 15 races.
