Singapore Grand Prix Review

The heat and humidity of Singapore made the race torture for the drivers. The lack of action made it torture for the viewers. The night racing concept remains a novelty, the event remains utterly spectacular, and the circuit remains on paper what a good street circuit should be. It's just that the bumpy layout doesn't break today's bulletproof cars, and, like Valencia, what looks good on paper instead creates rapid field-spread and no slipstreaming in reality.

When Hamilton took pole with the heaviest car in the first few rows, the race was his to lose. It is only on highly aero-dependent tracks that the McLaren MP4/24 still struggles; on a mechanical grip-dependent track like Singapore, Lewis was always going to be in his element, as he was at Monaco and in Hungary. He made no mistakes all race, and it was always going to take something brilliantly extraordinary from someone else to deprive him of the win. That simply never eventuated.

Would it have been a different story had everyone got their last Q3 runs in, and the lighter Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel beaten Hamilton to the pole? Unlikely - on strategy Lewis still held the aces, and Vettel and Rosberg's errors in the race merely gave up the win to the Englishman without a fight. Besides, if Rosberg and Vettel were lighter and therefore quicker, why were their first Q3 runs slower than Lewis? There is no reason why Hamilton wouldn't have taken pole regardless.

We wondered after Monza if Heikki Kovalainen had driven himself out of a McLaren seat. In Singapore, he did his chances no favours. Despite being on roughly the same strategy as Hamilton, he came nowhere close to his team-mate, was the slowest man in Q3, and was anonymous in finishing 7th. What's worse for the Finn is that he's even being left out of the silly season speculation; one might say it is the logical extension of his largely faceless season.

The fact that he took the penalty after the field had been compressed by a safety car only dashed his race even more. Meanwhile, 9th place after just failing to make Q3 meant Kazuki Nakajima came closer to finishing the season point-less. Like Kovalainen, he too has a fight on his hands to stay in F1, and his only hope might be if Toyota makes a decision to stay in the sport in 2010, but has no choice but to take a B-grade driver, or someone from their young driver program. Nakajima fits both descriptions.

Vettel was also punished for a transgression that didn't have any real impact - speeding in the pits by a mere 1.4 km/h. But again, the rules are the rules. From the front row, but on the dirty side of the circuit, he was duly beaten off the line by Rosberg and 3rd looked to be his lot, but after Nico's penalty he was set for a quiet 2nd before his own penalty. Still, he had enough gap over the Brawns to take his drive-through and still be ahead of the white cars, keeping his mathematical title prospects alive.

Mark Webber's, though, are now officially over after his fourth straight non-score, his race ending with a brake failure. Any hopes of a good result had been destroyed by a crazy piece of officialdom early on, when he went outside the kerb at turn 7 to pass Fernando Alonso, and was forced to cede the place back to the Renault. Except that Timo Glock had also passed Alonso at the same time, and Webber was forced to let Glock past as well.

Glock's opportunistic dive past Alonso was what led to his eventual 2nd place, which on top of his fine 7th in Q3 rounded out Timo's best weekend of the year. Perhaps, having apparently been told his services are not required by Toyota in 2010, he was driving to get himself noticed, in which case where has that kind of speed been all year? And where was Jarno Trulli all race? Apparently feeling unwell, he qualified poorly, started poorly, raced badly and wound up 12th. If his future in F1 is not in doubt, it should be.

Alonso was finally rewarded for his persistence with a podium and fastest lap that proved a rich fillip for a team reeling from the crash-gate aftermath and the loss of sponsors Mutua Madrilena and ING. For all the talk of driver movements for 2010, one issue that hasn't been discussed is where Renault will get their backing from. Romain Grosjean's difficult start in F1 continued, brake problems in Q1 and in the race compounding his illness and, remarkably, his free practice 1 crash at turn 17 of all places. Oh the irony!

5th and 6th places meant Brawn increased their constructors points lead over Red Bull, and Jenson Button also extended his gap over Rubens Barrichello to 15 points with three races remaining. After his Monza revival, Jenson was underperforming once again, missing the Q2 cut which proved a blessing in disguise, as his heavy fuel load gave him a strategic advantage in the race. Although the safety car meant he could not make best use of the tactics at the first stop, he crucially leapfrogged Barrichello at the second.

Truth be told, although the Brazilian continued to be the pacesetter at Brawn, the gearbox change penalty was always going to put him within Button's striking distance. It's amazing how even a little swing in points can have massive title implications at this late stage of the season. 14 points behind with four races to go and momentum on his side looked possible; 15 points behind with three to go looks so much harder. Mind you, Raikkonen won the 2007 title coming from 17 points adrift with two races remaining ...

BMW's late-season resurgence continued, giving the now-Qadbak Investments-owned team some welcome momentum should a 14th team opening for 2010 eventuate; most people seem to be operating on the assumption that Qadbak will be on the grid next year. Both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld made Q3, although Heidfeld copped a double penalty for both an engine and a gearbox changed and started from the pits. Kubica raced steadily if not spectacularly for the last point in 8th.

Of course, Heidfeld was taken out in the race by Adrian Sutil's antics, and his retirement broke his record-setting streak for consecutive finishes. The press have been counting his streak at 41 races, although that requires some clarification. 41 races would include the 2007 Japanese GP, where he retired late in the race but was still classified 14th. If you only count consecutive races where Nick actually took the chequered flag, then his streak was only 33 races.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Adrian Sutil
Careless spin-turn halted Heidfeld's record run

Force India could not keep up their recent form in a higher-downforce environment, although, as noted above, Singapore isn't particularly aero-dependent at all. Suzuka will be the real test of whether the team's most recent upgrade is just a great low downforce package, or just a great downforce package full stop. After making such an impact at Monza, Vitantonio Liuzzi came back to earth with a thud, qualifying slowest and making no headway in the race thanks to starting the race on a low fuel load.

The other Force India hero in Italy, Sutil, turned villain in Singapore. Beaten off the line by a fast-starting Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian spent the first part of the race trapped frustratingly behind the ragged Toro Rosso, unable to find a way past. Eventually he made his fateful dive that resulted in his half-spin, and in his rush to effect a spin turn he clouted Heidfeld. It was terribly unsafe, and any racer in any junior formulae knows you can't spin turn until the track is completely clear. 'Reject of the Race' material, that.

Alguersuari did give Sutil some competition though, thanks to his repeat of Felipe Massa's fuel-hose-dragging antics from the same race last year. Not only did it undo the good work that Jaime had done in keeping his faster rivals behind him in the first stint, but it was also entirely his fault. He could not blame, for example, the lollipop man flinching; he simply starting driving off without anyone telling him he could. The damage to the fuel rig also affected team-mate Sebastien Buemi's race.

Buemi had impressed in qualifying to be 14th quickest, and for a time early in the race he ran 12th ahead of Raikkonen. He retired at the same time as Alguersuari, the Spaniard being yet another (the fourth in total) to retire with brake issues, but Buemi with gearbox problems. The rumours are strengthening that Sebastien Loeb will get a run at Abu Dhabi. If so, then surely that would be a sponsorship-seeking stunt and no more; after all, Buemi and Alguersuari look like good investments for the future.