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/
 
I think Lewis is a very good driver, but thanks for making assumptions.

The first person to talk about Hamilton was mjo
I'm not going to respond to the rest of your post as I frankly find it somewhat insulting.
PS I thought Hamilton had a great race after the drive through. Sorry for not being a hater :(

How was my post in anyway insulting? I for one think Hamilton is a great driver who just happened to make a silly mistake in the race. I think his driving is a breath of fresh air to F1. I only happened to mention Hamilton first because I was replying as Massa had his interview, hence the lack of analysis to the situation.
 
theres still 125 points left.lewis was unlucky 2 weeks ago imo,and again in quali yesterday.
if he has a good quali session in 2 weeks,i can see him qualifying in second place and having a good race.
in both this race and 2 weeks ago he finisihed the races strongly.so dont write him off yet.
massa needs to stop moaning all the time and just accept his own team only really care about alonso's results.
 
How was my post in anyway insulting? I for one think Hamilton is a great driver who just happened to make a silly mistake in the race. I think his driving is a breath of fresh air to F1. I only happened to mention Hamilton first because I was replying as Massa had his interview, hence the lack of analysis to the situation.

That wasn't aimed at you, it was aimed at Senna's_right_foot. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Did anyone see the contact between Alguersuari and Trulli? Jaime was given a drive through but I don't think we saw it? Toro Rosso claims it was only light contact so I'd be interested in knowing what happened.
 
massa claimed in his interview that he'd just spoken to lewis about what happened.
well that wasnt exactly speaking to lewis was it.if massa hadnt of walked off,it might have kicked off.that would have been 2 fights 2 days in a row.
 
Webber once again loses places from the start.

Rosberg cuts a chicane and gets away with it.

Hamilton hits Massa and receives a drive through penalty.

Schumacher launches himself over Perez and slams into the barrier triggering a safety car and earning himself a post-race reprimand.

Alguersuari hits Trulli and gets a drive through penalty.

Rosber hits Perez and there is no further action.

Kovalainen has an unsafe release almost taking out Vettel and the team is fined.

Senna hits Perez and the team is fined.

Vettel wins comfortably and is 1 point away from being the youngest ever WDC with back to back titles.

Force india have both drivers in the top 10.

Button is the only other driver left in the title race, although realistically it's all over.

Why is it seemingly only one of those incidents is worthy of discussion?
 
well after every race lewis seems to always be the most talked about.and really the lewis/massa incident and then lewis fighting his way back through the field,along with schumachers crash are the only things worth talking about.the race was boring otherwise.
 
Schumacher launches himself over Perez and slams into the barrier triggering a safety car and earning himself a post-race reprimand.

What goes around comes around. Perez went up massively in my estimation throughout that whole scrap from mugging Schumacher to stubbonly refusing to yield into the corner.
 
All the Hamilton/Massa, Rosberg/Perez & Schumi/Perez incidents have one thing in common. They can all be put down to either a racing incident or receive a penalty, unfortunately as is all too typical in these marginal calls by the FIA, there is often only one driver consistently punished.
As for Massa post race - he really needs to learn how to control himself. Rather cowardly doing it in front of the camera's knowing Lewis probably wouldn't react. Hopefully Lewis will see him out of camera and give him a chance to explain himself.
A great drive by Jenson and Vettel.
Schumi just found out why it’s not such a good idea to weave in front of someone today!
 
This is where I say something unusual:

McLaren's re-fueling gaff in Q3 cost Hamilton a 2nd run which, at worst, would have put him on the clean side in 3rd and, at best, on the front row in 2nd.

Instead, he got hurt being on the dirty side on the grid - as most of that side did - and found himself mired in the dog pooh.

It's a shame that McLaren/Lewis can't knit together a proper qually/race.

So only 1 podium in how many races now? 9?

5 more races (unless India gets Deep 6'd) in which to beat Button in the standings. That should be the aim. It's doable.
 
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