As the drivers stepped
from the cockpit of their cars in Parc Ferme at the end
of qualifying, they looked as hot and sweaty as if they
had just completed an entire Grand Prix at a “normal”
venue, but after four years of coming to Singapore,
everyone is well aware there is little that is normal
about the weekend at the Marina Bay circuit.
Even if the temperatures go down from the early evening
start of the third free practice session to tonight’s
qualifying, it’s still the hottest and stickiest session
of the year. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa gave their
all in the hot Singapore night, with the Spaniard
driving out of his skin, risking all on a lap in Q3
which he described as possibly the best he has delivered
so far this year. However, in Formula 1, a driver is
nothing without his car and so, with none of the drivers
in the top ten shoot-out making any mistakes, the grid
order for tomorrow looks more like a parade than a
starting grid, with the teams coming in two by two,
reflecting the technological hierarchy that has
characterised much of the 2011 season.
Leading the parade are the Red Bulls: the hottest man
around the 5.073 km track was championship leader
Sebastian Vettel, who dominated all three parts of the
session last night, eventually beating his team-mate
Mark Webber by almost half a second. Next up came the
two McLarens with Jenson Button outpacing Lewis
Hamilton, while Fernando was fifth, still within half a
second of the pole time and less than a tenth off a
front row slot. Felipe was
sixth. Still lining up like the animals boarding Noah’s
Ark, the fourth row will see the two Mercedes of Nico
Rosberg and Michael Schumacher starting tonight
side-by-side, followed by the two
Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta
completing the top ten.
Street circuits are notorious for delivering the
unexpected, so the Scuderia’s hopes are that a podium
should still be a viable target. Both Prancing Horse drivers
have shown that the 150º Italia can be very quick out of
the starting gate, but exploiting that in the middle of
a city is a tricky task. If this first target goes well,
then it will be down to the strategists, the pit crew
and every other element of the team to perform their
tasks to perfection, while the drivers look for any
opportunity, looking after their tyres and avoiding the
barriers, all under floodlights and in the heat of the
night: no one ever said Formula 1 was easy!
Stefano Domenicali: “This qualifying
mirrors the championship. There is one driver and car
combination that is all but untouchable and then four
drivers who are fighting it out to the nearest hundredth
of a second, the same four who can be found battling for
second place in the classification. Clearly, we are a
bit disappointed today because in fact, Fernando came
very close to getting a slot on the front row, but we
are well aware that one must accept the reality of the
situation, without beating ourselves up about it. Felipe
got the job done, extricating himself from a couple of
complicated moments and getting the grid position that
one could have expected. Now we must concentrate on
tomorrow night’s race, which will be extremely long and
tough, both for the drivers and the cars. We will try
and do our best, exploiting every opportunity that comes
our way.”
Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with
this qualifying, because I think that might have been my
best Q3 lap of the whole year. I gave it 120%, taking
risks in some corners, but that was the only way I could
hope to fight for the top places. If I’d driven a normal
lap, I would have finished in the same position, but
half a second off the two McLarens, rather than less
than a tenth. Sure, if I was in front of Hamilton and
Button, then it would be a completely different story,
but that’s how it turned out and there’s no point saying
we were unlucky. I am convinced that a podium finish is
within our reach. Usually, we go better in the race than
in qualifying and there is no reason why that should not
be the case here. We will try and make up some places at
the start, even if, at this track, there is not much of
a run from the start line to the first corner. Then we
will try and make the most of our strategy and any
eventual tyre degradation levels lower than that of some
our opponents. This is a very hard race for the
mechanical parts of the car and the Safety Car is
usually involved: we will see what happens, but, I say
it again, I am confident in our chances of getting to
the podium.”
Felipe Massa: “Sixth is definitely not
the result we were aiming for, but we have to accept it.
Now we must think about the race which definitely does
not look like being an easy one: tyre degradation is
significant, both on the Soft and the Supersoft and will
have to be able to adapt to that as best we can. I think
that, as never before, getting the strategy right will
be the key to having a good race. We are definitely more
competitive here than we were in Monza. Today, it was
not easy putting together a perfect lap and, even if the
car was much improved compared to the last free practice
session, I still had a lot of oversteer, especially when
the rear tyres were overheating in the second and third
sectors. The incident with Hamilton? Honestly, I don’t
understand why he wanted to pass at all costs: we were
all in a line on our “out” lap and there was nothing to
be gained from acting like that.”
Pat Fry: “Reading the results sheet,
one could say it reflects the current pecking order
which has characterised this season, but it’s natural
that when the gaps are so close, at least among those
battling for pole, there’s a hint of disappointment. All
the same, Fernando did a great job, getting the maximum
out of the car we gave him. If we look at the gap to
pole, we can say that, returning to a high downforce
track, running the softest Pirelli compounds, we are
back to the situation we had seen before, for example in
Germany and Hungary, while in Spa and Monza we suffered
a lot more. The start will be important tomorrow, an
area where we have done rather well recently: we will
therefore be trying to repeat that to make up some
places. Then it will be important to see how the tyres
behave, which will be a decisive factor for the
strategy. On this track, you cannot get anything wrong,
because the slightest error and you can easily find
yourself in the barriers. We can therefore expect all
sorts of scenarios and we will have to be clever to
exploit any opportunities that might present
themselves.”
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