Last night's two hour
Singapore Grand Prix not as exciting as many of this
year’s contests, nor was it a great night for Scuderia
Ferrari: Fernando Alonso fought bravely to finish
fourth, having been a podium contender for much of the
evening. Felipe Massa’s run of bad luck continued, as
his race was ruined by an impulsive move from Hamilton –
punished with a drive-through penalty – which meant the
Brazilian had to make an extra stop with a puncture and
then fought his way up from the back of the field to
ninth at the flag.
Sebastian Vettel, continued his dominating ways to take
his ninth win of the year. Joining him on the podium in
second place was Jenson Button for McLaren, with Mark
Webber taking third in the other Red Bull. At the start,
Vettel led from pole, but a bad getaway from Webber saw
Button go second and Fernando third, while Felipe made
up one place to fifth, followed by Rosberg, and
Schumacher who both got past Hamilton who dropped from
fourth to eighth. On lap 4 Hamilton passed Schumacher
for seventh, and set out to chase down Rosberg in the
other Mercedes, while Fernando was 0.6 behind Button, 5
seconds behind the leader. Massa was 7.6 off the lead
Red Bull. Lap 5 and Hamilton passed Rosberg to take
sixth place.
On lap 6, Webber was the Red Bull meat in a Ferrari
sandwich as the Australian tried to close on Fernando,
with Felipe pushing hard to get near enough to try and
use the DRS system to pass. One lap later it was Webber
who had got under the 1 second gap necessary for DRS use
on Fernando. On lap 9, Webber was only 0.5 behind
Fernando, and Felipe had dropped off Webber’s rear wing
but now had to contend with Hamilton’s McLaren filling
his mirrors. Rosberg was the first to change tyres,
pitting on this lap. Lap 10 and after a couple of
corners running wheel to wheel, Webber finally passed
Fernando who dived into the pits for fresh rubber,
followed down pit lane by Schumacher.
Felipe and Hamilton came in together on lap 11 and left
the pits in the same order. The Englishman tried a rash
passing move on the Brazilian, removing part of the
McLaren wing and puncturing the Ferrari’s right rear
tyre which meant another pit stop dropped him way down
the order, while Hamilton continued with part of the
front wing missing until he limped in the pits on lap
13. He was given a drive-through penalty for causing an
avoidable accident – no consolation for Felipe who had
plummeted to 20th place.
At the front, it was Vettel, Button, Di Resta, Perez all
yet to stop with Alonso fifth. Then on 14, Vettel and
Button both came in and one lap later Fernando passed
Perez. Vettel was way out in front of Button, with Di
Resta, the only man not to have pitted in third in front
of Fernando, slowing the Spaniard considerably,until he
got past on lap 19 to go third, 15 seconds behind
Button.
Further back, Felipe was trying to regain places,
passing Buemi on lap 21 to go up to twelfth. In fourth
place, Webber had upped his pace, lapping a second
faster than the Spanish Ferrari driver so the gap
between them came down to one second on lap 21. Two laps
later and the gap was only 0.6. Lap 25 and Schumacher
was the first of the front runners to make a second
scheduled stop from fifth place, followed down pit lane
by Fernando, who had enough of an advantage over the
Force India battle for fifth between Sutil and Di Resta
to maintain fourth place.
On lap 30, the Safety Car came out as Schumacher rammed
the back of Perez as he tried to pass the Sauber,
launching the Mercedes into the barriers. Webber pitted
immediately, followed soon after by Di Resta, Sutil,
Rosberg, Perez, Hamilton. Vettel came in from the lead
with Button following him down pit lane. As the cars
followed the Safety Car, Vettel still led Button, with
Fernando third, although several back markers were in
the mix, with Felipe just outside the points in
eleventh. The SC came in at the end of lap 33 and
Fernando had no slower cars behind to protect him from
Webber, the Australian getting past as the two men ran
into traffic. The Safety Car had definitely not helped
the Ferrari cause today. Behind Alonso came a fantastic
battle for fifth with Di Resta, Rosberg, Sutil and
Hamilton all within a second, as Felipe finally hoisted
himself back into the points zone in tenth. Hamilton was
now on a charge, the McLaren man dispensing with Rosberg
and harrying Di Resta for fifth on lap 39, getting past
and setting off in pursuit of Fernando. Felipe made his
fourth visit to pit lane on lap 42, which dropped him
back to 13th.
Lap 47 and Webber was the first of the leaders to three
stop, rejoining fifth behind Hamilton and with the
advantage of new tyres, he soon got past the McLaren, as
Button made his last tyre stop on lap 48,with Hamilton
also coming in. Lap 49 saw Vettel come in from the lead,
followed by Fernando, but the activity in the pits had
no effect on the order of the top four. And so they
carried onto the flag, with no change in the order, even
if Button ate into Vettel’s lead. Five more races, five
more chances to secure a win for the Prancing Horse. The
battle resumes in two weeks at one of the calendar’s
iconic venues, Suzuka circuit in Japan.
After fourteen races,
Alonso drops to third in the Drivers’ classification,
while Massa is sixth and the Scuderia is still third in
the Constructors’ classification.
Stefano Domenicali: “The result itself
is not a surprise, but the performance definitely was,
and in a bad way. We were slower than we expected and we
must carefully analyse the reasons why things turned out
this way. It will be a useful exercise for the coming
races and also when looking to the future. Fernando did
his best, staying in the hunt for a podium finish right
to the end and he is still definitely in the running for
second place in the Drivers’ Championship. Felipe could
also have been up there with him, but his race was
ruined by the puncture caused by Hamilton: our Brazilian
is definitely having an unlucky time of it at the moment
and yet again, as in Monza, he had to fight his way back
up the order through no fault of his own. Now we must
roll up our sleeves and maintain our motivation for the
remaining races of this season, in which our aim has to
remain the same, namely to try and win some races. At
the same time, we must learn as much as possible about
the behaviour of this car, to apply the lessons to the
one that is currently at the design stage.”
Fernando Alonso: “Unfortunately, today
it was impossible to finish on the podium. We were not
fast enough and, even if we were third for some parts of
the race, we knew that sooner or later we would be
overtaken. Sure, if you nail the start and something
unusual happens and you do everything perfectly and then
some, the podium might come your way, but at the moment,
the reality is that our car is third best in terms of
performance. Then, as happened today, if the Safety Car
wipes out the few seconds advantage we had put together
over Webber and the backmarkers, who were maybe a bit
distracted, create unexpected problems, then everything
becomes more difficult. At the start, on the Supersofts,
we had very high degradation, while on the Softs the
situation got back to more or less normal compared to
Red Bull and McLaren. We fought all weekend long and I’m
pleased with the way the team worked, because they
always did their very best and we got the most we could
have done out of this race. We have five difficult races
ahead of us, but our motivation does not change: at some
point maybe we will be able to attack, while there will
be other times when we have to defend, but either way,
we will always do our best.”
Felipe Massa: “There’s no point in me
hiding the disappointment and anger I feel at the end of
a race that could have delivered a very different
result. The damage following contact with Hamilton
penalised me a lot because I lost so much time in the
early stages when the traffic was still very heavy.
After the race, I tried to talk to him to clear the air
but he walked away without even answering: so I told him
what I thought when we found ourselves in the interview
area. On top of that, the Safety Car added to my
troubles: I had changed tyres a few laps earlier and had
fitted the Supersofts which definitely would not have
got me to the end of the race, while other drivers were
able to make the most of the race being neutralised to
make their stop without losing too much time. In the
end, first of all, I lost some time behind Barrichello
and then I had to let Vettel by, which meant I was a lap
down on him and had lost any chance of finishing
seventh, given that Sutil and Rosberg in front of me
were struggling with their tyres. I would really like to
have a trouble free race at some point, something that I
have not experienced recently, if you look at Monza for
example. Today, a top six finish was definitely within
reach.”
Pat Fry: “We have to be honest and
accept that this result reflects the relative strengths
of the teams at the moment. Our car is third best and to
finish fourth is more or less what we might have
expected. We cannot say the same as regards our
performance level, which did not match our expectations.
Tyre degradation, especially with the Supersoft, was
very high and we must try and understand why. In terms
of strategy, I think we took the right decisions: the
Safety Car certainly did not help, because both Felipe
and Fernando had made their stop a few laps earlier and
so they could not exploit that advantage compared to
their closest competitors. In the end, we left Fernando
on the Softs, because it was the best choice to cover
Hamilton, the only one who could have taken the position
off us. Unfortunately, by this time, the podium was
already out of reach. To those who ask what will
motivate us as we tackle the remaining races, I would
say that we have a lot of work to do, both to try and
improve the performance level of this car and to get
pointers for next year. We have some new parts in Japan
and Korea which will be useful on both these fronts. We
are Ferrari and we won’t let ourselves be discouraged by
a poor showing.”
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