Alonso resists Vettel to win in Singapore

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took his second successive victory – his fourth this season – after resisting a race-long challenge from Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull Racing’s team-mate Mark Webber finished in third after surviving a clash with Lewis Hamilton, who was forced to retire with damage to his McLaren.

That crash at Turn 7 on lap 36 with the championship leader has dented Hamilton’s title ambitions dearly. Lewis tried to snatch a position off Mark after a lapped Virgin Racing car of Lucas di Grassi held up his Red Bull Racing rival.

Hamilton slipstream past Webber on the run down to Turn 7 and took an outside line – but his left rear wheel was tagged by his rival on the exit of the corner and he was pushed wide.

Although Webber was able to continue and finish on the podium, the impact damaged Hamilton’s car enough to force him out of the Singapore Grand Prix. Another disappointing result especially when he retire from the previous race at Monza.

For Mark Webber, finishing in third was the best reward following a row three qualifying spot. The Australian still leads the drivers’ championship with 202 points, eleven ahead of race winner Alonso, twenty over Hamilton and twenty-one from team-mate Vettel.

Alonso’s win proved to the relatively straightforward – lights to chequered flag – but with two safety car periods and Vettel never far behind the Spaniard, it was a great result for the double world champion after nearly two hours of intense racing.

The pair even came into the pits at the same time for a single pit stop and their track position remained unchanged to the flag.

Webber’s third place owed much to a tyre gamble when the safety car came out on lap three to remove Tonio Liuzzi’s stricken Force India from the circuit. The Red Bull Racing pitwall decided to gamble and bring in the Australian from fifth to change to the harder Bridgestone tyre – with Webber being the only one of the frontrunners to do so.

He returned to the track in P11 and over the laps that followed regained enough lost ground that Webber was able to leapfrog the McLarens in the pits. Hamilton later had an opportunity to get the position back on a race restart – following a safety car appearance caused when Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna collided at Turn 18 – but heading into Turn 7 the Red Bull and McLaren made contact.

The only consolation for McLaren was Jenson Button finishing in fourth, ahead of Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg. As for Rosberg’s team-mate Michael Schumacher, he had a difficult race after clashing with both Saubers and coming home a lap down in unlucky P13.

For Williams, both Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg finished in the points with sixth and ninth respectively. The pair being split by Renault’s Robert Kubica – who made some spectacular overtaking moves in the final laps thanks to fresh tyres – and Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

After starting last on the grid, Felipe Massa drove a solid race to claim the final point for Ferrari in tenth.

In the battle between the second division of Formula One, Lucas di Grassi finished two laps down in P15 for Virgin Racing while Heikki Kovalainen was classified P16 even though his Lotus burst into flames on the main straight near the end.

Alonso’s victory means he is now within 11 points of Webber with four races remaining. The 15 points the Australian scored on Sunday should be credited to the strength of his front wheel and could be the factor in the outcome of this world championship.

Race result from Singapore, 61 laps:

1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h57:53.579
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +0.293
3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +29.141
4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +30.384
5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +49.394
6.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +56.101
7.  Kubica        Renault                    +1:26.559
8.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +1:52.416
9.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +1:52.791
10. Massa         Ferrari                    +1:53.297
11. Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
12. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
14. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
15. Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +2 laps
16. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +3 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:47.976

Not classified/retirements:
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              51 laps
Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari               35 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             34 laps
Klien         HRT-Cosworth                 30 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               29 laps
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 28 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               26 laps
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         1 lap

World Championship standings, round 15:

Drivers:
1.  Webber       202
2.  Alonso       191
3.  Hamilton     182
4.  Vettel       181
5.  Button       177
6.  Massa        125
7.  Rosberg      122
8.  Kubica       114
9.  Sutil         49
10. Schumacher    46
11. Barrichello   39
12. Kobayashi     21
13. Petrov        19
14. Hulkenberg    18
15. Liuzzi        13
16. Buemi          7
17. De la Rosa     6
18. Alguersuari    3

Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault          383
2. McLaren-Mercedes          359
3. Ferrari                   316
4. Mercedes                  168
5. Renault                   133
6. Force India-Mercedes       62
7. Williams-Cosworth          57
8. Sauber-Ferrari             27
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

Next race: Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka. October 8-10.

11 thoughts to “Alonso resists Vettel to win in Singapore”

  1. The top three drivers’ views on the Singapore Grand Prix, as taken from Autosport.com.

    Fernando Alonso says he is not ruling out anyone from the championship fight despite the result of the Singapore Grand Prix.

    The Ferrari driver took his fourth win of the season at Marina Bay to move into second place in the standings, 11 points behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber.

    Lewis Hamilton’s hopes suffered a big blow after he retired from the event.

    The Briton is now third, 20 points behind Webber, with Sebastian Vettel one point further behind and Jenson Button 25 adrift of Webber with four races left..

    “It remains very tight. All five contenders are still more or less with the same possibility,” the Spaniard said. “Mark has a little bit more margin to have a bad weekend. For the others we need to keep catching up if we can.

    “We will do our best, we won’t know if it will be enough to win the title in Abu Dhabi but people can be sure we will fight until the end.”

    He added: “In these four races any of us can win two or three consecutive races and be in a good position, but if you make mistakes you can be off the championship. We need to keep our concentration – hopefully with no mistakes and hopefully we keep the same way in Japan as well.”

    Alonso, who had to cope with race-long pressure from Vettel, finished just two tenths of a second ahead of the German.

    The Spaniard admitted it has been a very tough race.

    The two-time champion conceded the win meant a lot to him.

    “It was very difficult,” said Alonso. “We knew that before coming here. We know Singapore physically is the toughest race this season, with two hours in humidity on a street circuit. It was tough to drive.

    “This win means a lot. We know Singapore is a unique track and we could confirm the car is performing well.

    “This win means a lot to stay in the fight for the championship. We know there are four races to go. It seems we can be competitive in any track. Great job by the factory and the team to get 100% of potential all the time. Forza Ferrari!”

    Sebastian Vettel has declared himself satisfied with second place in today’s Singapore Grand Prix, claiming that it was better to secure a decent haul of points than risk losing everything in trying a move on Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso for the win.

    “I tried to push him [Alonso] into a mistake, but he did not make a mistake,” said the Red Bull driver.

    “It’s difficult to overtake here and it would have been too risky. We got good points. The most important is that car was competitive all weekend. There was a bit missing yesterday and that is probably what was missing today.

    “In the drivers’ championship everything is open.”

    Vettel also highlighted his good start, saying that it indicated that some of the suggestions that the team was struggling to get off the line cleanly were off the mark.

    “We made a good start,” he said. “We have been criticised wrongly in the past, and it was good to come here on street circuit to get right settings on car, and both did good starts.”

    The German added that Alonso’s back-to-back wins proved that the championship still remains open.

    “Any of the five drivers leading the championship still have a very good chance,” he said. “Things can change quickly – just look at Fernando. People have written him off twice and he is back.

    “If you win one or two races you are back again, so the most important is the consistency. We have to keep our head down and get the maximum out of ourselves.”

    Mark Webber declared himself very happy with third place at the Singapore Grand Prix after a strategy gamble paid off for the championship leader.

    Webber, starting from behind all his championship rivals, decided to pit very early in the race, the charging through the field, moving from 12th to third.

    The result allowed the Red Bull driver to stretch his lead in the standings to 11 points over Fernando Alonso.

    Webber conceded he was delighted with third after a difficult weekend.

    “I am very happy with third,” said Webber. “It has been a pretty difficult weekend here for me, probably the toughest weekend of the year.

    “I didn’t feel mega comfortable here this weekend, so I’m very happy with how the race went. To get third I am very happy with it.

    “It was easy to panic and worry about losing a lot of time behind guys. Getting out of bed this morning I would have taken third. This guy in the middle is hanging in there but we need to get rid of him soon.!”

    The Australian was involved in an incident with Lewis Hamilton, with the duo clashing as the Briton tried to overtake.

    Hamilton was forced to retire, but Webber could continue, and the Red Bull driver believes the incident was similar to that of Monza, where Hamilton made contact with Felipe Massa.

    “Lewis certainly was a little bit ahead but it was similar to the last race with Felipe and Lewis,” said Webber. “Felipe probably didn’t know he was there. Lewis was quite a long way behind.

    “This can happen sometimes, we brake completely on the limit. For sure it was incredibly tight, we did not hit that hard but enough to probably put both of us out of the race. Fortunately I could continue.”

  2. For the second race in a row, Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire after a collision with a race rival. In this case with Mark Webber’s Red Bull. The 2008 world champion was left frustrated and has commented that he is not focusing on this championship following his clash. Autosport.com has the full story.

    Lewis Hamilton says he is not thinking specifically about the championship anymore following his retirement from the Singapore GP.

    The McLaren driver suffered his second retirement in two races after he made contact with Mark Webber when trying to overtake the Australian.

    His retirement left him 20 points behind Webber with four races to go.

    Hamilton admitted the gap to Webber was quite big, and said he will try to enjoy the rest of the races without looking at the standings.

    “There are still four races to go. I’m 20 points behind Mark, and that’s a reasonable gap, but it’s not an insurmountable one,” he said. “I guess I’ll just have to keep my head down and hope for the best.

    “I’m not going to think specifically about the world championship right now, I’m just going to try to enjoy the rest of the season – and whatever happens happens. But I’ll keep fighting to the end, because it’s the only way I know.”

    The British driver said he was unsure about what had happened with Webber, but believed it was a racing incident.

    “I’m still not exactly sure what happened with Mark and me,” said Hamilton. “But, telling it from my point of view, I saw that he’d made a mistake, and had got caught up with the backmarkers, so I was in position to slipstream him. I was on the outside going into Turn Seven, and he was in my blind-spot, just behind me.

    “I thought I’d got sufficiently past him, though. I braked, turned in, and tried to leave enough room for him on the inside – and the next thing I knew I’d got clipped, my tyre was blown, and that was it. But, as the saying goes, I guess that’s motor racing.”

    Team-mate Jenson Button, fourth today, was satisfied with the result, despite the gap to Webber increasing to 25 points.

    “It’s a circuit where we knew they’d be competitive, and probably one that was going to be difficult for us, so I go to Japan pretty happy,” Button said.

    “We’ve got a good upgrade for Suzuka: we’ll have something that we tried to put on the car this weekend but couldn’t – for reliability reasons. Coupled with our planned-for-Suzuka upgrade, it should hopefully be a bit of a double-whammy.

    “My championship hopes were dented a little bit by Mark [Webber] finishing ahead of me, but the points gap to the front is just a race victory away. It shows there’s still everything to play for – one bad race can cost you a lot of points.”

  3. Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg has said that he was quite satisfied to finish in fifth as this was the best possible result the German could have hoped for. He out-raced his team-mate Michael Schumacher, who had a frustrating Singapore Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the details.

    Nico Rosberg says his fifth-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix was very satisfying and the best result he could have hoped for.

    “It was extremely tough out there but we achieved the best possible result for us today,” said the Mercedes driver, who had started from seventh position.

    “Our aim for the last few races is to finish as the best behind the top three teams and today we were able to profit as two of them had issues with Felipe in qualifying yesterday and Lewis in the race today.

    “So fifth place is good for us and it’s very satisfying for the team. I could push Jenson a little at some points which was good to see. We will be aiming to finish the rest of the season as strongly.”

    Team-mate Michael Schumacher, on the other hand, endured a race to forget after making contact with two rivals during the event.

    The seven-time champion was first hit by Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and then he hit the Japanese driver’s team-mate Nick Heidfeld when trying to overtake.

    Schumacher finished down in 13th position.

    “I am not particularly happy about my first experience of racing in Singapore this evening,” Schumacher said. “I had two encounters with other cars which were racing incidents and meant that I had to make my stops at times which were not ideal and consequently my race was heavily compromised.

    “I suffered with the rear tyres on my first set of options which made me slide rather than drive through corners which was tough, so I would probably say that I only enjoyed the second part of the race.”

  4. LATEST: Adrian Sutil has lost his eighth-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix following a penalty.

    The Force India driver had finished in eighth position in the Marina Bay race, but was given a 20-second penalty afterwards, as the stewards deemed he had gained an advantage for going around the outside of Turn 7 on the opening lap of the race.

    The penalty moved Sutil down to 10th position.

    Eighth place goes to Williams’ driver Nico Hulkenberg, while Felipe Massa moves up to ninth.

    Source: Autosport.com

  5. For Renault’s Robert Kubica, the Polish driver really enjoy the charge to seventh thanks to some great overtaking passes in the closing stages of the race due to his fresh set of Bridgestone tyres. Autosport.com has the story.

    Robert Kubica says that he enjoyed rallying back to seventh after losing time to a puncture during the Singapore Grand Prix.

    The Renault driver had been running sixth when he was forced to stop on lap 46 to have a punctured right-rear tyre replaced.

    Upon returning to the track in 13th, the Pole spent the remaining 15 laps fighting his way back into a solid points position, with his recovery including a spectacular side-by-side battle with team-mate Vitaly Petrov over the bridge.

    “The last few laps were definitely the most exciting part of the race,” Kubica said. “The engineers spotted a right-rear puncture on the data – it must have been some debris that cut the tyre, because I didn’t touch the wall and couldn’t feel anything in the cockpit.

    “That stop dropped me from sixth to 13th position. I had much fresher tyres than the cars in front in those last laps, but it’s still not easy to pass in Singapore, so it was good fun picking them off one by one. In the end, I got back to seventh place, which meant we only lost one position compared to our maximum this afternoon.

    “Ultimately, if somebody had said that I would finish seventh today, and make one more pit stop than the cars around me, then I’d definitely have taken it.”

  6. Nico Hulkenberg has been handed a 20-second penalty following a protest by the Force India team in Singapore.

    The Silverstone-based squad protested against Hulkenberg after its own driver Adrian Sutil was given a 20-second penalty for having gained from going around the outside of Turn 7 on the opening lap of the race.

    The team felt the Williams driver has also gained from cutting a corner.

    Sutil, who had finished the race in eighth, was demoted to 10th, but has now moved to ninth following Hulkenberg’s penalty.

    The Williams driver, meanwhile, drops to 10th.

    The penalty means Force India is back in front of Williams in the Constructors’ Championship. Force India has also confirmed it has withdrawn its protest against Sutil’s penalty decision.

    Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, having finished in 10th, moves up to eighth.

    Revised race results:

    1. Alonso Ferrari
    2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
    3. Webber Red Bull-Renault
    4. Button McLaren-Mercedes
    5. Rosberg Mercedes
    6. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth
    7. Kubica Renault
    8. Massa Ferrari
    9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes
    10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth
    11. Petrov Renault
    12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari
    13. Schumacher Mercedes
    14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari
    15. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth
    16. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth

    Revised World Championship standings, round 15:

    Drivers:
    1. Webber 202
    2. Alonso 191
    3. Hamilton 182
    4. Vettel 181
    5. Button 177
    6. Massa 128
    7. Rosberg 122
    8. Kubica 114
    9. Sutil 47
    10. Schumacher 46
    11. Barrichello 39
    12. Kobayashi 21
    13. Petrov 19
    14. Hulkenberg 17
    15. Liuzzi 13
    16. Buemi 7
    17. De la Rosa 6
    18. Alguersuari 3

    Constructors
    1. Red Bull-Renault 383
    2. McLaren-Mercedes 359
    3. Ferrari 319
    4. Mercedes 168
    5. Renault 133
    6. Force India-Mercedes 60
    7. Williams-Cosworth 56
    8. Sauber-Ferrari 27
    9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10

    Source: Autosport.com

  7. Japanese tyre supplier Bridgestone has commented that Mark Webber was ‘very, very lucky’ to finish the Singapore in third following a collision with championship rival Lewis Hamilton. Autosport.com has the details.

    Mark Webber was ‘very, very lucky’ to finish the Singapore Grand Prix on the podium claims Bridgestone, after discovering that his tyre was close to coming off its rim following his collision with Lewis Hamilton.

    The world championship leader survived a mid-race brush with Hamilton to take a third place that helped extend his lead in the points standings.

    But it was only after the race that tyre supplier Bridgestone realised how close Webber had been to suffering a puncture – with his tyre millimetres from slipping off the rim.

    Evaluation by Bridgestone showed that the collision with Hamilton had pushed the tyre off its normal mounting on the rim. There was approximately 5mm left between the inner edge of the rim and the tyre – and if it had slipped over that small distance it would almost certainly have resulted in the tyre losing its pressure.

    Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima said it was incredible that Webber’s tyre had stayed intact.

    “He was very, very lucky. It was just 5mm from slipping off,” Hamashima told AUTOSPORT. “If it had slipped off then the pressure would probably have gone down.

    “So Mark was lucky there, but also with the track too. If there were very high-speed left hand corners here, then the tyre would have moved a little bit more and then it would have been finished.”

    When asked if he had seen a tyre stay inflated like that before, Hamashima said: “No. A few times I have seen it for a few laps, but over 25 laps is incredible.”

    Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner admitted that Webber had had some good fortune judging by the post-race inspection of his tyre.

    “Mark has ridden his luck because looking at the state of that front right tyre it is pretty much off the rim,” he said. “I have never seen anything like it.”

  8. McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh believes Lewis Hamilton did nothing wrong in his accident with Red Bull rival Mark Webber during the Singapore Grand Prix.

    Hamilton’s championship chances took a huge hit after his second retirement in a row left him 20 points behind Webber with four races to go.

    The 2008 world champion and the Red Bull driver made contact when fighting for third place following a safety car period. The clash meant Hamilton retired right away, while Webber went on to finish on the podium to stretch his lead in the championship.

    Hamilton had retired from the Italian GP two weeks earlier in similar fashion, after clashing with Felipe Massa at the start of the race.

    This time, however, Whitmarsh believes Hamilton was simply unlucky.

    “I think Lewis was very unlucky,” Whitmarsh told reporters. “I am sure people may, because it is easy journalism, look at two races in a trot we have an incident but I think if you look at what happened today Lewis did not make a late lunge.

    “What happened in Monza was a bit opportunistic but if you look at the position of Lewis in Monza versus the Ferrari then it was almost reverse of what happened today. He got past, he was in the lead and went for the corner and left a bit of space – but Mark was lucky to get away with it.

    “We can get heated about blame but I think Mark has got to race as well, but the important thing from my perspective was that from Lewis it was not a desperate overtaking, it was a solid overtaking manoeuvre. When ever you overtake in any form of motor racing there is a degree of risk and he was unlucky that it did not come off this time.”

    He added: “I don’t believe Lewis did anything wrong. I am not trying to get into the blame game but I think he made a good overtaking manoeuvre. Whenever you overtake someone, if they are not going to comply or ease then there is a degree of risk, but this was not a late-braking or late-lunge. He got past on the straight, he was ahead going into that corner.

    “He reasonably expected to be able to determine his line, he left a bit of space for Mark and I think Mark was committed quite late and not able to go through on the inside. He hit Lewis. Mark was very lucky to get away with it absolutely and Lewis was very unlucky. But there is no blame attached to Lewis for what happened today.”

    Whitmarsh did not lay the blame on Webber either, but reckons the Australian was lucky to be able to continue the way he did.

    “I am not laying it firmly. I believe that what Lewis did was right. And I am not here to try and blame Webber, I think he was very lucky to get away with it.

    “If you look at the car positions going into that corner and contrast them with what happened in Monza you can almost reverse Lewis’s position so we all blamed Lewis last time, we cannot blame him this time. The fact is that they are both motor racing drivers.

    “If he had tried to brake late and make a chancey overtaking move then we would rightly be disappointed in him, but the fact is he got past, he was in front when they went into that corner, he had the right to determine that line and the car that is behind normally has to accept that that is happening.

    “He had some space but did not take all the space and had an accident, but I don’t think blaming Mark is useful. Did Lewis make a mistake in what he was doing? No, he didn’t in my opinion.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  9. Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen’s suffered a fire in the closing stages of the Singapore Grand Prix. Instead of heading into the pits, the Finn decided to stop the car on the start/finish straight and put out the flames himself. Read the Autosport.com story below:

    Heikki Kovalainen says he drove down the start-finish straight, rather than head into the pitlane, with his on-fire Lotus because he thought that was the safest thing to do.

    The Lotus driver caused a stir in the closing stages of the race when his T127 was engulfed in flames thanks to fuel-system damage caused by a collision with Sebastien Buemi’s Scuderia Toro Rosso.

    As the flames took hold of his car, Kovalainen elected not to drive into the pits – and instead he coasted down the start-finish straight before coming to a halt in front of the Williams pits.

    Speaking about the incident afterwards, Kovalainen told AUTOSPORT: “I think it looked more spectacular than it really was.

    “When you get some fluids on the hot exhaust it is always going to catch a big flame, and I was just trying to find a marshal with some extinguisher. I eventually chose to stop in front of the Williams boys and they gave me some extinguishers.”

    When asked why he did not go down the pits, Kovalainen said: “I thought about it, but then I thought it was too big a fire and it was not safe enough to go in the middle of the people, and at the end of the race there might be people celebrating there.

    “So I thought it was better to stop on the main straight. I didn’t realise it was that big a fire until I was in the pit-lane entry, so I had to think about it.

    “Then I thought about crossing to the right hand side of the track but I thought it was too high speed a corner to cross the track with such flames. So then I just tried to crawl it around the corner. That is what I was looking for – finding marshals.

    “The engine was dead. It was game over by then.”

  10. Ferrari believes it is now entering a ‘crucial’ moment of the season as it bids to follow Fernando Alonso’s back-to-back victories with title success at the end of the year.

    The Maranello-based team is currently in its peak form of the campaign, with Alonso having delivered a brilliant victory in the streets of Singapore following his success in Italy a fortnight ago.

    But although Ferrari is refusing to get too carried away with its results – especially because the points’ standings are still very close – Stefano Domenicali thinks it vital his outfit does not let it guard down just now.

    “This is the crucial moment of the season,” said Domenicali. “We need to stay very cool and look forward to arriving in Japan with the perfect package in terms of car, in terms of preparation of the drivers, and also for the team because if you make a mistake you pay a lot.”

    Alonso’s pace over the Singapore weekend suggests that Ferrari has made a good step forward with its car in recent weeks – but Felipe Massa’s gearbox gremlin that struck in qualifying has highlighted that there remain weaknesses in the team’s overall package.

    “For sure, it’s important for us to work very hard on reliability because as a team we paid a big price this weekend,” explained Domenicali about the efforts that need to go on now.

    “The car seems to be better in terms of general performance, also on this kind of track.

    “We will have some little updates, nothing major, but I think now a lot will be in the head of the drivers, in the head of the people who have to work, and in the reliability other than an incredible performance.

    “We know that all the teams now are in a period where they have to switch to put all their resources in the new car otherwise they will be very late at the end, so I think it will be an interesting end to the season.”

    Domenicali believes that Ferrari’s calm approach to the campaign – even when its title ambitions appeared to be derailing – must be maintained even though its fortunes have improved dramatically.

    “I’m never down when things are bad, or I never declare it fantastic when things are going well,” he continued. “What I know is that we need to be cool, feet on the ground and to work hard.

    “We know when we’ve made some mistakes, when some others have been better than us, but that’s part of the game, part of life.

    “The most important thing is to have a clear focus in front of you, to try to never give up, and that’s what we are doing.”

    And although refusing to say for certain that Ferrari can carry its strong form into the final four races, Domenicali is confident the team has what it takes to at least fight for the title until the end of the season now.

    “Now with four races to go the situation is very open,” he said. “I’m expecting in Japan for McLaren to return to being very strong, Red Bull is already strong so it will be difficult.

    “I’m expecting Japan to be a track where we have to be even more defensive, then Korea, I don’t know. We need to see the track because in a simulation you could decide to run with blown wings, but you go on the track it’s the opposite.

    “Then we have Brazil where we should be okay, then Abu Dhabi which is not really perfect for us, but we’ll see what the situation is in the championship.”

    He added: “The championship situation is so complicated that we need to stay cool. But I believe we have everything to fight up until the last race. I have always said that, and I maintain that position.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  11. Well, as always, Singapore is a great race to watch. Not great racing, but great to look at. Night-time, great heli shots, city lights and of course the billlion watt lit street course.

    But yeah, great racing? Nah. A few crashes, well, a few cars meeting with the wall at various speeds should I say.

    I should of said in the the pole entry, but I’m really liking the qualies atm. I mean yes it’s close at the top, so that helps. But time and time again this year and a lot of last year too, we have an epic last 10 seconds. All the drivers are out for one or maybe two flying laps to get the pole ( no not Kubica 😀 ). And with Ferrari getting in on the act now, it can be any of what 8 drivers challenging?

    I know there are faults, liking having to start with the tyre you ran on, but it’s a really good system now I think. When we go back to one session with a 108% time limit or whatever it is, yes I think that will rock. Back to all out speed and that. However, it could lead to it being a bit more boring. There’s nothing to say that in the last few minutes not many cars will go out and challenge the lead. Where as now, it only 10mins to set a time, so you go out set a time and come back in. Wait till the last moment, and all hell break loose as they are all out again and no-one knows it’s over till literally the last second has clicked by.

    Anyways the race.

    Well it was a bit of a yawn. But, I wasn’t expecting anything more, so just sat back, enjoyed the eye candy and whatever happens, happens.

    Now course, the start was going to be very interesting. With Alonso under pressure to stay infront, Seb to actually take his hand off his cock and start decently and Lewis expected to fly past Seb, who was expected to forget to take his hand off his cock!

    But alas it was not to be, and so blah, blah blah, till “OMG Lewis is out!”

    Now, I’ve still not 100% made my mind up as to if the was more blame for Lewis or Webber. Well scrub that. I’ve made my mind up that did Mark deliberately crash into Lewis. On the face of it, no. He was carrying too much speed, and so even if Lewis gave him more room, then i think he still would have made contact. Maybe contact that caused no damage, but still would have hit him.

    BUT, there is evidence there that Webber may not have done whatever necessary to avoid it. He didn’t appear to make much of an effort to go round the corner, though the excess speed may have had a little to do with that. but more interestingly there’s this.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9033204.stm.

    “Are you willing to be ruthless and selfish to ensure you win the title”
    “……….yes.”

    And this

    http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/49251000/jpg/_49251891_webber_hamiltoncollision1.jpg

    Hmmm, interesting no? Now I like Mark a whole lot, and while selfishness is not welcome in my game, ruthless without crashing into people is OK by me. Hey, you cant love Senna and want it all to be hugs kisses and “No, after you dear Mr Prost”. Tho er yes Senna was in fact ‘crashing into Prost’ but hey, everyone else glosses over that, so sod it, he was God.

    But well, Lewis is/was he main rival at the time, and I doubt Webber will be in the same championship position he’s in now, ever again. That, WILL make you drive differently and do things you wouldn’t normally do.

    The other thing adding weight to this is the fact that Webber could see exactly what Lewis was doing/going to do. Lewis on the other hand, hardly had a clue what Mark was doing.

    But hey, that’s F1 and this shit will go on forever in the sport. And to be brutally honest, it needs to. How many drivers in F1 over most of it’s life time, could you really call RACERS?! Not many, so anything done to say “hey my heart is in this, not my wallet, so I’m coming past!” is mostly OK by me.

    So as for the rest of the race, er, erm, oh there were to DNF at the bridge as always, and a few more safety cars ( which seemed to get off the track very slowly ) and a fire which again, seemed no-one gave a shit in doing anything about it. I think it must have been getting a bit late for the stewards!

    But hey, things can only get better and as you have mentioned Elton, maybe next year we will be able to see this race in HD! About friggin time as well. So those “Hey you can see the drivers eyes in this shot” will look crystal clear in HD instead of a grainy mist of cack in STD def.

    See you in Japan!

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