The Singapore Grand Prix can definitely be classed as a “what might have been” race, as the intervention of two safety cars meant that we were denied an exciting and unpredictable finish. Also the retirements of Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado spoiled what would have been intense competition at the front. None of this will have bothered Sebastian Vettel, who took his second win of the season, nor Fernando Alonso, who extended his championship lead over all his rivals bar Vettel. But despite the anti-climactic ending, the strategy decisions and factors that shaped the race are very interesting and worth More…

Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren’s recent qualifying dominance, making it four poles from four races for the Woking team and underlining his value to them as he set an untouchable lap to claim pole position in Singapore ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Sebastian Vettel. Following Vettel’s dominance of all free practice sessions Hamilton set the bar at an unbeatable height in the final part of qualifying to claim his 5th pole of 2012 and his 3rd in four races, by almost half a second. It is his 24th career pole position, matching that of Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet and the More…

Here is something a bit different – Ferrari F1 driver and world championship leader Fernando Alonso drove a flying lap of the Singapore Grand Prix circuit today on the Shell Performance Simulator, which was set up in a hotel downtown. The Spaniard, who has won the Singapore Grand Prix twice, drove a hot lap in 1m 48 seconds, which is only three seconds slower than he managed in qualifying here last year, whilst at the same time describing it in English, complete with corners speeds and some insights and details. It’s a pretty impressive performance; particularly because he did not More…

This weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix will be absolutely fascinating from a strategy point of view. Find out how some teams will try to do the race with only one stop, how much effect the Safety Car can have on the outcome and check out a new feature: the League Table of Team’s Pit Stop Performance; there are some surprises here! Contents – The Key Strategy considerations • Track characteristics • Form guide • Weather forecast • Likely tyre performance • Number and likely timing of pit stops • Chance of a safety car • Recent start performance & Pit Stop More…

Fernando Alonso took pole position under the lights for tomorrow’s Singapore night race in a thrilling battle with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. The pair traded fastest sector times in the final runs, but Vettel brushed the wall, handing Alonso pole by a tenth of a second. It was his 20th career pole and the second in a row this season. Lewis Hamilton was third for 4/10ths ahead of McLaren ahead of team mate Jenson Button and Red Bull’s Mark Webber. The session had started with a scare for Ferrari – Felipe Massa stopped out on the track during Q1, before More…

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the third practice session at Singapore, pushing Sebastian Vettel down to second place. Nico Rosberg was third. It looks like being a very competitive qualifying session this evening, with McLaren, Red Bull and Williams all looking strong, while BMW seem to have made a big step with their heavily revised car. There is some work to be done at Brawn. Yesterday the car seemed to be working well but they made some changes in the third practice and Jenson Button radioed his engineer at the end of the session to say that More…

Formula 1 commercial right holder Bernie Ecclestone has said that he fears the Renault board may decide to quit Formula 1 following allegations that Nelson Piquet was asked to crash his car so that his team mate Fernando Alonso could win last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. With car sales well down for all the manufacturers in Formula 1, this is a delicate moment in their participation in the sport anyway. Renault recently announced heavy losses and Toyota is expecting to lose up to $8 billion this year. The feeling in the Spa paddock before the bombshell about the Singapore enquiry More…