|
Kimi
Raikkonen finished last night's Singapore Grand
Prix in tenth place, while his Scuderia Ferrari
team-mate, Giancarlo
Fisichella came home in
thirteenth place. Having
qualified in 12th and 17th
places respectively, there
was never a realistic chance
of a great result on a
street circuit, where
overtaking is virtually
impossible. Even the
inevitable intervention of a
Safety Car did nothing to
improve the Scuderia duo’s
situation.
Lewis Hamilton
led from pole and went on to win, which means that his
McLaren team are now a mere three points behind Ferrari in the battle for
third place in the
championship, as the first
two positions have been
locked out by Brawn and Red
Bull for a long time now.
Joining the reigning world
champion on the podium, was Timo Glock second for Toyota
and Fernando Alonso third
for Renault.
Against the
most unique and spectacular
night time backdrop of
Singapore, Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen
lined up on row 6 of the
grid in twelfth spot, with
Giancarlo Fisichella on the
penultimate row in
seventeenth place. Nick Heidfeld would start from
pit lane in the BMW.
As the
lights went out to start the
fourteenth round of the
World Championship, with a
heat haze rising from the
cars, Hamilton shot into the
lead from pole and Rosberg
immediately went to second,
passing Vettel, who then had
to fight off Alonso who got
alongside the Red Bull in
his Renault but not enough
to get past. Webber
maintained his grid place of
fourth. Kimi dropped a place
to thirteenth, while
Giancarlo moved up one to
16th in the F60, both
Ferraris getting pushed wide
and bogged down in traffic.
Grosjean was the first
retirement, bringing his
Renault into the pits on lap
3.
With lap
times slower than last year
– leader Hamilton had done a
1.49.172 at this stage – the
race was going to go very
close to the two hour limit,
which in the heat and
humidity would be a real
test of man and machine.
On lap 5,
Hamilton led from Rosberg,
Vettel, Webber, Glock,
Alonso, Barrichello, Kubica,
Kovalainen, Button,
Nakajima, Buemi, Raikkonen,
Alguersuari, Sutil,
Fisichella, Liuzzi, Trulli
and Heidfeld. One lap later,
the order changed as Glock
and Alonso both got past
Webber, who thus dropped to
sixth. Kimi was two seconds
behind twelfth man Buemi and
Giancarlo was 2.4 adrift of
Sutil. Although his engineer
told him to disable the
faulty KERS on the McLaren,
Hamilton was still the
fastest man on track,
exploiting the advantage of
having no one ahead of him.
After 10 laps, Kimi’s times
began to match those of
Buemi ahead of him and the
gap began to come down
between them and on lap 11,
the Finn got by comfortably
to go twelfth. In 14th
place, Alguersuari was
slowing those behind, so
that Sutil was just 0.6
behind him, with Giancarlo a
further 0.6 behind, but
coming under pressure from
Liuzzi.
Lap 14 and
Hamilton led Rosberg by 3
seconds, with Vettel 1.7
down on the Williams. Then
came a big gap to fourth
placed Glock, who had 5
seconds in hand over Alonso.
The rest of the top ten had
Webber in sixth, followed by
Barrichello, Kubica,
Kovalainen and Button. Vettel was
the first to pit, coming in
on lap 17, dropping from
third to seventh, with
Rosberg bringing the
Williams in from second one
lap later. Webber also came
in at the same time from
seventh, followed in by
Giancarlo and Liuzzi. Glock
who had moved up to second
refuelled the Toyota on lap
19, with leader Hamilton in
on lap 20.
The
inevitable safety car now
appeared, after Sutil tried
to pass Alguersuari, which
spun the Force India round,
then collecting the BMW of
Heidfeld. Naturally, this
prompted a rush for the
pits, as this was the window
for most drivers’ first
stop, including Kimi.
Alguersuari
tried to drive away with his
fuel line still attached,
knocking over a Toro Rosso
refueller, but then got away
again without further
incident. The entire field
had now made their first
refuelling stop and were
still running behind the SC
on lap 24, when the order
was Hamilton, Rosberg,
Vettel, Glock, Alonso,
Barrichello, Kovalainen,
Button, Webber, Kubica,
Nakajima, Kimi (12) Buemi,
Trulli, Giancarlo (15,)
Liuzzi, Alguersuari 17th and
last as Sutil retired in the
pit.
The SC came
in to pit lane at the end of
lap 25 and after such a long
period tyres and brakes
would have cooled
significantly, providing
less grip and braking. The
entire field was back within
ten seconds, from Hamilton
to Alguersuari. Rosberg in
second place was due to take
a drive through for crossing
the white line at the pit
lane exit. The German came
in for it on lap 27. The battle
at the front was hotting up,
as Vettel chased down
Hamilton, the gap being 0.8
on lap 29. In third, Glock
was a further 4.1 behind. In
eleventh place, Kimi trailed
Nakajima by 1.9 and had
Buemi 1.0 behind, while in
15th, Giancarlo was 3.9
behind Rosberg, with Liuzzi
0.8 behind.
In 14th,
Rosberg started the second
run of stops on lap 34. Lap
37 and the lead battle was hotting up as Vettel was now
just half a second off
Hamilton. Fisichella moved
up to 13th when Buemi
refuelled on lap 38. Vettel
pitted on lap 39 from
second, while Buemi came in
again as no fuel had gone in
the car at the first stop.
Vettel however was given a
drive through penalty for
speeding in the pit lane,
which he took on lap 43. At
this point, Kimi was tenth
and Giancarlo 13th. Webber
refuelled from ninth on lap
44, a long stop because of a
problem with the right front
wheel. The next lap saw
Glock refuel his Toyota,
which dropped him from
second to sixth. Lap 45 and
Webber put his car in the
wall at Turn 3, as the
leader Hamilton made his
second stop. Kovalainen,
Barrichello and Nakajima
also refuelled as did
Giancarlo. Alonso yet to
make a second stop now led
from Hamilton and Button,
the Englishman also yet to
refuel.
Kimi made
his second stop on lap 52
and was tenth on lap 54. Out
in front, Hamilton appeared
to be heading for the win,
his McLaren 7.1 ahead of the
Toyota of Glock, with Alonso
occupying the final podium
position. As for the rest of
the points places, Vettel
was fourth, leading Button,
Barrichello, Kovalainen and
Kubica. With five laps
remaining, Kimi was closing
on Nakajima in ninth, but
Kubica in the last points
position was a further
second ahead of the Japanese
driver. The positions
remained unchanged, with
Ferrari thus ending a run of
ten races in the points. Now
there are just a few days,
before the Scuderia has a
chance to do better at
Suzuka; a circuit where both
it and its two drivers have
a good track record.
Stefano Domenicali:
“Honestly, I don’t think we could have
done much better. When you start this
far back on a track like this, it’s
difficult to climb up the order. Kimi
and Giancarlo did their best, trying to
exploit what their cars had to offer. We
have to accept the fact that many other
teams have made yet another step forward
in terms of performance, which makes our
technical situation even more difficult,
given that development on the F60
stopped a while ago now. When we took
that decision, we knew we would pay for
it more and more as the end of the
season approached, but let’s be clear on
one thing, we are not giving up: there
are still three races to go and we will
tackle them with maximum effort because
we want to do all we can to finish third
in the Constructors’ classification. In
a strange season like this one, anything
can happen. Again today, for example, we
saw teams that used to be a long way
back, now at the front end, while others
did the opposite.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“I couldn’t do any better. The car was
sliding everywhere and I had no grip. In
the final part, with the softer tyres,
the situation improved a bit, but by
then it was too late. I closed up to
Nakajima and, a few times, I tried to
risk a passing move, but here it’s
really difficult to overtake unless the
guy in front makes a mistake. I don’t
expect the situation to be much
different next week in Suzuka: it is a
very demanding track for the car, from
an aerodynamic point of view and we are
lacking in this area. Having said that,
I will be trying my hardest.”
Giancarlo Fisichella:
“It was a very tough race, both
physically and mentally. The pace was
not up to Ferrari’s standard and we have
to take that on board. I was struggling
to keep the car on track because of a
lack of grip. At the end, on the softer
tyre, the car’s handling improved and I
managed to do some good lap times. We
brought my first pit stop forward to try
and get me out of traffic, given that I
was stuck behind Sutil, but then with
the safety car the move didn’t give the
result we’d hoped for. Here, KERS was
less of a factor than at Monza: at the
start I managed to pass a car and then
it was mainly useful to defend my
position. Now we go to Suzuka, a real
track: given how things have gone this
year, with cars being strong in one race
and weak the next, it’s difficult to
make any predictions.”
Chris Dyer: “It
was a very difficult race, for both Kimi
and Giancarlo. Contrary to what has
happened in recent races, we were unable
to make the most of the start, which has
been one of our strong points this year.
We were already a long way back on the
grid and so our situation was
immediately more complicated, especially
as overtaking is virtually impossible
here. Today, several cars failed to
finish, or were struggling with brake
problems, but we were not able to
exploit that to make it at least into
the points. As for the tyre performance,
the softer compound, in the final part
of the race proved to be better than
expected in terms of consistency, but it
was not clear enough to decide to use it
as from the second stint, which was the
longest one. It’s easy to say things
after the event, but I do really think
we made the right choice.”
Race details:
K. Raikkonen:
10th 1:57.05.229 + 58.892, 61 laps, Chassis 279
G. Fisichella: 13th 1:57.26.227 + 79.890, 61 laps, Chassis
280
Weather: air temperature 32/30 °C, track temperature
34/32°C, covered skies
|
