Singapore Slings

Singapore.
Well there you go.

What have I always said about winning a Championship ? No, not “ that you need to pay Bernie a shed load of cash”. What I always say is that to win the F1 World Championship you have to be consistent and keep Lady Luck in an awful lot of champagne. She’s a game old lass and she knows a good racer when she see one. But get her a bit tipsy and she’s all yours and now, has got down off the pit wall and is cosying up to that rough old Ozzy chap in the Redbull garage. But in a rather sneaky way, she’s keeping her eye on her once favorites down at Ferrari.

So Alonso nails Singapore and takes the pole, the win and the fastest lap just for good measure. He took the pole on his first Q3 run on Saturday and then keeping it when Vettel brushed the wall on his final run, and never looked back from there really. Come Sunday and he “defended” the lead when the lights went out. If he had defended the line like that against Webber, chances are he’d have got a load of Webber up the back side. But Vettel knew what was best for him and backed out nice and early. Leaving Alonso to pretty much cruse up to the flag, Vettel kept him honest all race, but apart from a bit of traffic never looked like troubling Alonso for the win. That’s two on the bounce for the grumpy Spaniard and you would be a brave man to bet against him for the title. He won on the balls out speed circuit of Monza and now on the technical street circuit of Singapore. Given the circuits left to race, the Ferrari looks to be in good shape.

Vettel in 2nd then and he should have got pole and then lost the lead at the start before he’d even got it. Redbull tried to keep him out for as long as possible, but Ferrari had them covered all the way. It’s nice that he finished a race without hitting anyone or anything for a change and it’s done his championship no harm. But they had the car to win and but for a two foot section of Armco on Saturday, they would have. Are they faster then the Ferrari? yes, probably, maybe. We’ll see. But i still don’t think Vettel can win the championship.

3rd for Webber the luckiest man in South East Asia right now! He should be off down the casino right now to put all his money on the first number he sees. So after a rubbish qualifying left him down in 5th he prayed for a safety car and when that dully arrived he was in for the hard tires with an hour and 40 left on the clock. A couple of niffy passes saw him move him up the field, so that by the time the top six came in for tires he was right back in contention. When the second safety car came out he was almost jumped by a battling Hamilton. Now I’m going to be partisan because i like Hamilton and I think Webber is too ready to “strongly defend” his racing line. If there’s a 50/50 he’s not going to back out and that means he’ll hit the other car. Hamilton had taken advantage of Webber getting caught up with the Virgin of De Grassie , i’ll be fair and say that Webber had better track position coming into turn 5, but he could see Hamilton was ahead into the corner. Yes i know he’s chasing a world title. But he was lucky that Hamilton didn’t take them both out, Hamilton was ahead, turned in and gave Webber enough room “if” Webber had braked and moved over the rubble strip. But Webber being Webber never brakes early and “Strongly defended” the corner as usual from a driver than couldn’t see him. The Result Hamilton out and Webber with a wonky wheel.
You could argue that Hamilton, knowing Webber wouldn’t give him the room, should have given him more room, but you’re wrong and Webber is too ready to drive into other cars. And he needs a shave, Seriously. So he’s still leading the race for the chase for the cup for the thing. But it’s all starting to look a bit tight now.

Button in 4th get’s this weeks “was he there at all “ award. He got told that Webber was cruising on used hard tires and still didn’t get any closer.

Rosberg 5th, demonstrates that you don’t have to drive into other people to get a result here. Please take note Mr so called seven times world champion Schumacher. Who is rapidly turning into an arse as well as a smug German git.

Barrichello starts 6th and finishes 6th, another boring race for him.

Kubica has a barnstormer of a race. With a late puncture he ends up in 13th behind Algy, Petrov, Massa, Hulkenburg and Sutil, who he dully passes in the next 10 laps or so to record an excellent 7th place. I’ve been hard on Kubica over the years, never really believing that he has what it takes to go for the win and do something. Admittedly he was on new tires when the others were on very old tires, but you know he still had to get past the other guys who were all fighting for points.

Now, Adrian Sutil crossed the line ahead Hulkenburg and Massa in 8th. But the FIA have decided that he gained an advantage at the very start of the race on Lap 1. He Went off the circuit at turn 7 and therefore at the end of the race he should get a drive through penalty of 20 seconds, which moves him back down to 10th and Hulkenburg up to 8th.

Massa therefore crosses the line in 10th but is given 9th place which is a pretty good result for a driver that started at the back of the grid after the car gave up the ghost on it’s first qualifying lap. Not a bad result for a driver that has looked out of sorts all year long.

So Sutil ends up in 10th and is lucky or unlucky depending on how you did in the Prediction game.

There you go then, it’s all still tight at the top with 25 points still coving the top ten, and as Hamilton has shown it’s easy to get clunked by another driver and shoved into the armco. So it’s not all over just yet for Button and Vettel. But Hamilton needs to get a win or podium soon and. Whilst Alonso is on the move and Webber holds on by the skin of his teeth.