Grand Prix 2011 Singapore Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Getting closer and closer

Every time we say that Vettel won't win, he comes up trumps with a flawless performance and Monza was no different, taking pole, won the race and put a smart move on Alonso which won him the race.

Ferrari have pretty much admitted defeat and are stopping development on their frankly dissapointing 2011 car which so far has only taken one win at the rain affected British Grand Prix which was also the only track where the EBD was banned which was negatively affecting McLaren and Red Bull more than it was Ferrari. It means that Fernando Alonso will have gone 5 years without adding to his 2 world championships which he took at Renault in 2005 and 2006 and he will be more determined than ever to fix that soon. Felipe Massa looks to be just going through the motions and is a shadow of his pre 2009 self.

Jenson Button continued his strong second half of the season with a podium at Monza to further assert himself as the number one driver at McLaren, indeed his performances recently have been putting his team mate in the shade and a series of overtakes in Spa and Monza have showed that he has the mantle to be the leading driver at McLaren.

In contrast Lewis Hamilton has been somewhat troubled recently, after a crash in Spa, a spin in Hungary and just 1 podium in 8 races, he was notably less agressive in Monza, particularly when trying to overtake Schumacher who arguably should have been penalised for agressive defending which other drivers have been penalised for recently.

Apart from over agressive defending Schumacher has been driving a lot better recently and has been up at the front on a more consistent basis and surely he must be close to a podium now? Rosberg has been very unlucky recently, a good strategy in Monza was ruined when he was t-boned by the missile that was Liuzzi who was given a penalty for his spin, he claimed that he was pushed off by Kovalainen but this wasn't true and the stewards took a dim view of him.

Toro Rosso have enjoyed a very strong second half to the year with another double points finish in Monza with Alguesari continuing his Lazarus act from near expulsion to take his season total to 16, 3 ahead of his team mate Buemi who took a solitary point in the sister Toro Rosso, both will be looking to get the upper hand on each other as the season draws to a close and Riccardo in the rear view mirrors when the 2012 contracts get drawn up.

Renault showed a resurgance in Monza with Bruno Senna taking his first F1 points in 9th, he might have finished higher but he was caught up in the first corner crash which forced Petrov to retire after both cars had made it into Q3, but with Singapore being a totally different track, it will be a good test on whether the last upgrades for the car have worked.

Singapore is the first night race in F1 but apart from 2008 which was affected by deliebarate crashing and race fixing, the races have been rather dull with little action throughout the race and many fans criticising the circuit despite decent overtaking figures.

For Galahads superb write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/marina-bay-street-circuit/
 
McLaren keep making the same mistake in Q2 - try and preserve a set of options for Lewis by him going out on primes, set a good time, then bottle it and send him out on options just in case. The whole point of that strategy is to not bottle it!

Thankfully they recovered the best of a bad choice by not sending him out again in Q3 so at least they have the same number of options as everyone else.

But he's got the work to do....again:givemestrength:
 
rufus, they don't have the same amount of options, Lewis only has 2 sets of options for the race, whereas everyone else has 3. I imagine most will go Super-soft, Super-soft, Super-soft, Soft. Hamilton will have to do Super-soft, Super-soft, Soft and if his Softs run out he will have to pit again. If it was JB then you'd think he could make it work and he may even try that strategy anyway, but with Lewis, he likes to be on the limit every lap and he can often make a strategy with more stops work, so this is not good for him at all.
 
It's really annoying because im sure Hamilton was compromised on his first flying lap in Q3
Hamilton's comments:

“I’m not sure, I went over a kerb and then they said they lost pressure immediately, so it might have been on a kerb. There are lots of bolts hanging out of kerbs, that’s what they’ve been having problems with over the weekend, so maybe that’s it.”
...
My lap was pretty good, but I was held up by Fernando, I was about a second behind Fernando at the end. I lost a little bit in my second sector.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/09/24/lewis-hamilton-we-were-too-late-to-get-going/
 
Further changes made to the circuit ahead of the race.

3 Exit The white line denoting the track edge has been moved one metre from the wall and the area behind it painted red and white with non-slip paint
5 Entry Checked for security
5 Apex Checked for security
5 Exit The kerb has been removed and the area between the track edge (white line) and the wall painted red and white with non-slip paint
7 Apex The kerb itself remains unchanged but has been more securely fastened using new inserts in the track, new bolts and epoxy resin
7 Exit The kerb itself remains unchanged but has been more securely fastened using new inserts in the track, new bolts and epoxy resin
8 Apex Checked for security
9 Apex Checked for security
10 Exit Checked for security
11 Apex Checked for security and repairs carried out
12 Apex Checked for security and repairs carried out
13 Apex The kerb has been replaced but with a shorter section, it has been more securely fastened using new bolts and epoxy resin
14 Entry Checked for security
14 Apex Checked for security
14 Exit The white line denoting the track edge has been moved one and a half metres from the wall and the area behind it painted red and white with non-slip paint (It had been our intention to replace the kerb but satisfactory repairs proved impossible in the time available)
16 Apex Checked for security
17 Apex Checked for security
17 Exit The kerb has been removed and the area between the track edge (white line) and the wall painted red and white with non-slip paint
18 Entry The kerb has been removed and the area between the track edge (white line) and the wall painted red and white with non-slip paint
18 Apex The kerb has been shortened and been more securely fastened using new bolts and epoxy resin
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/f1releases/2011/Pages/SingaporeGP-Kerbs.aspx
 
Thanks, Brogan.

That is such a shame.

So, basically, it will be a miracle if he out-races Button tomorrow all things being equal (in terms of reliability or other drivers not hitting him or Button).

Button will have all his tyres, correct?

Hopefully the McLaren boys can get good starts (and re-starts) so they can do something about possibly winning the race.
 
Unless it rains:thinking:Or the supersofts wear out so quickly that everyone realises the softs are better:victory:Or Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Button get tangled up at the first corner. Lewis' new cautious aproach sees him LOLthrough

Edit-sorry Im not with it. That was repling to something from ages ago:embarrassed:
 
Unless it rains:thinking:Or the supersofts wear out so quickly that everyone realises the softs are better:victory:Or Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Button get tangled up at the first corner. Lewis' new cautious aproach sees him LOLthrough

Edit-sorry Im not with it. That was repling to something from ages ago:embarrassed:
Reckon someone should just go for it into the first corner, or else I can see this one being a precession with a little mixing done @ the Pit Stops........
 
So, get this...

Apparently the guy who was supposed to be pumping the fuel in for Lewis' second Q3 run pressed the wrong button (or pressed it the wrong way?) and actually took fuel out!

:rolleyes:

So instead of having a car starting on the front row, McLaren manage to cock-up qually again!

Luvly! :embarrassed:

Oh well, it's likely moot given that the Q2 punture puts Lewis on the back foot for the long race anyway...
 
Yes. All of what you say is true and possible.

But it's hard to be too optimistic when he's got one less set of Super Softs than everyone else he's fighting.

Rear tyre degradation will be the story - unless there's a crucial Safety Car situation.

It's like sending Lewis into a gunfight with only 4 bullets in his chamber against 6 for the other guys!

There's 'optimism' and then there's 'realistic'.

If i'm betting money on this race, I ain't going to be stupid about it.
 
Can I come out and say something slightly controversial?

I like the chicane. I really do like the chicane. When I hear that eeijit Jordan say its too difficult I cringe. OK, its not elegant. But maybe F1 should challenge the drivers to do something difficult that they might not enjoy. They're supposed to be the greatest drivers in the world.

Far too often, the drivers are getting used to a load of "normal" corners. Why not let them do something difficult? The Grand Hotel chicane at Monaco is by a long way a 'worse' corner (its so bad the cars can't actually tackle it, so you end up with a clumsy tango any time two cars go anywhere near it in any kind of vacinity to it). But it is a different challenge - thats what street circuits are there for!

It is a perfect street circuit corner. Get it wrong and feel the armco. Again, if you cope with the Grand Hotel corner, then this one works on the same principle. Far too much of Singapore is like Valencia at night, but there are some corners where the walls loom large enough to cause a challenge.

So the chicane must be kept, to keep the Singapore Grand Prix, as a whole, an interesting challenge. Lets not mollycoddle F1 drivers. They're big boys now, and its about time they faced corners where they absolutely cannot err, where the half-a-second you'd lose on the mammoth run-offs of Shanghai or Sakhir looks like a distant wish as you stand on a dark Asian roadside.

I completely agree with you. I actually like that chicane as it provides some challenge to the drivers.

Massa/Hamilton
One minute EJ says it's the teams fault for not planning track position properly like Red Bull did

then all of a sudden Lewis is at fault and needs chastising for trying to sort out track position himself

And a team like McLaren are not able to fuel a car for a 2 lap run in the garage without it taking several minutes?

Well to be honest I think McLaren made the first mistake in sending Lewis out behind Massa, but Lewis then made another mistake by not staying back a bit or overtaking him in the beginning so that he had enough room to do a proper warm up lap.

And the refueling thing I dunno, maybe they had a problem with the rig? Shit happens.


I actually enjoyed myself watching the qualifying session. By the sound of things I'm the only one!
 
I really hope they fixed those kerbs now. That's a serious disgrace.

Massa should have gone faster or moved over.

Massa shouldn't have done a thing. He's not obliged to do anything for Lewis. If Lewis or anyone else is stuck behind him it's his own damn problem and they need to find a solution or suck it up. It's not Lewis' personal property, despite what some people may think.
 
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