Grand Prix 2012 Singapore Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

From the sunshine, trees and Ferrari madness of Monza to the water front and arc lights of Singapore, F1 begins the long haul end of the season with a night race at imaginatively named Marina Bay circuit. McLaren have won the last three races but Fernando Alonso still retains a significant margin in the Drivers Championship going into round 14. Last year was a Red Bull walk over but this year the Bulls have been somewhat castrated and Monza proved a real low point with a double DNF.

Lewis Hamilton's pole to flag win in Italy must give him great hope of chasing down Alonso's Championship lead, hopefully the on-going contract shenanigans won't distract him in the City State race. Don't under estimate Ferrari however, Massa showed good pace at Monza and Fernando Alonso is the only multiple Singapore GP winner in the field, one win behind matching Graeme Lawrence's three victories (look it up if you don't believe me).

After a pulsating second at Monza Sergio Perez must be hoping to go one better this race as his Sauber, through a combination of out right pace and strategy, was chasing down the leading McLaren towards the end in Italy. Whether their usual unusual strategy in Singapore will reap the same dividends remains to be seen, perhaps it's Kamui's turn?

The one man destruction derby that is Romain Grosjean will more than likely be back in the Lotus after Jerome d'Ambrosio put in a workman like, but less than stellar performance, standing in for the Frenchman. Kimi Raikkonen must be hoping the Lotus works better around the streets than it did on the high speed Monza track although fifth wasn't a bad result. Mercedes will, doubtless, continue in their position of best of the rest although Force India were their usual speedy selves around the open curves at Monza and will probably push the Mercs close.

Of the rest, what can you say? Williams - the tortoise and the hare incarnate, albeit the hare seems to have a habit of breaking a leg a little too often. Should we run a sweep on whether Pastor or Romain will punt another driver off first? The back of the grid are using the Noah principal and will come in "two by two", in qualie at least. This is a special race for Narain Karthikeyan as it marks the anniversary of his début at HRT having driven the Spanish shit box in free practice last year. Money well spent...

Pointless fact about Singapore: If you cross into Malaysia with less than 3/4's of a tank of fuel you will be fined $100 dollars.

Circuit write up is here: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/marina-bay-street-circuit/ enjoy!
 
This could be another problem circuit for Red Bull if they don't manage to sort the alternator issue out.
The current thinking is it's to do with low revs at slow corners and there are quite a few of those at Singapore.
 
If Vettel doesn't win in Singapore it will be a double figure number since he last won. Certainly not something I would have predicted at the start of the season.
 
Well the track used for the Indy 500 has only four corners, all at a 90 degree angle. Nobody calls it a poor excuse of a racing circuit. :)

270 degrees if you wish to be pedantic ;)

As for Singapore, I'm ambivelent , I'll watch it with relish but it is by far my favourite race of the season.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Mercedes were on the pace in Singapore. Looking through the Autopsort gallery they seem to be testing a lot of new parts at the young driver test at Magny-Cours, couple that with the fact that Mercedes had at least the joint fastest car at Monaco (a track with many low speed corners) and I think they might just return the pace they had in the first few races of the season. Otherwise I think Ferrari will have the car to beat, it's been deceptively quick this season and nearly every single update that is brought to it seems to bring performance.
 
I personally hate Singapore. The idea is great, but the circuit they put together is absolutely rubbish. Its like the organizers followed a lost tourist in his rental car and decided it would work. I couldn't even pass freaking Jarno Trulli in his Lotus in F1 2011 where its much easier to make passes. But anyways back on topic I feel like there are about 10 corners that could just be taken out. Maybe I'll do a redesign.
 
soccerman17......In all fairness to Singapore there are plenty of purpose built circuits that are far less interesting and provide pretty ordinary races. I love Singapore for lots of reasons I state around this time every year. Each to their own though. :)
 
You guys are right it does create some exciting moments but I think thats more due to the concept of the night race and street circuit with giant runoffs around about half the track. And yes many purpose made tracks these days are worse because many circuits these days are garbage. But I do like the idea the problem is the layout it just needs to be simplified to have less corners and longer straights. Not too long though. OK now I'm just being picky but seriously make it at least possible to make a pass without making it too easy like they did at Abu Dhabi last year when you just had to wait until the DRS zone and it was automatic.
 
I must say that FB 's write up is a poor substitute of the regular write ups, I wonder where the writer was, hope he's back for the next race ;)

My only criticism of the track is that it's very long winded, it's like a figure of 8 but without the cross over if anyone knows what I'm trying to get at
 
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