Marina Bay Reflections: Steve Slater’s Singapore F1 Grand Prix recap

It takes a bit to overshadow Sebastian Vettel’s third consecutive victory on the Marina Bay circuit, yet team-mate Mark Webber nearly succeeded in the aftermath to the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix.  The Aussie, whose Red Bull had ground to a halt with a blown engine in the closing laps, created controversy with his unconventional return to the pits, riding on the side of Alonso’s Ferrari.

 

The FIA stewards subsequently formally reprimanded both Webber for running back onto the track and Alonso for stopping to pick him up. As it was Webber’s third reprimand of the year, the Australian is now hit with a ten-place grid penalty at the next race in Korea.

 

At first I, like many others, was disappointed that the stewards penalised what was surely a sporting gesture. Now having subsequently seen closed-circuit TV footage, I can see their point.

https://youtu.be/RD7M3njrsJ4

Webber, still no doubt with adrenaline coursing through his veins, ran out onto the track on the slowing down lap, hailing Alonso as if he was driving a taxi. Other drivers including Hamilton and Rosberg had to take avoiding action, with Hamilton being forced to run over the kerbs on the outside of Turn 7 as he came across Alonso’s stationary Ferrari.

 

Webber’s actions may appear to be supreme folly, but one should remember that during a race a driver’s physiology and reactions becomes very different. With the adrenaline pumping in a race a driver’s pulse-rate can sometimes reach over to 200 beats per minute, more than double that of a normal adult, a level that would probably have you or I admitted to a cardiac unit.

 

After jumping out of his car, Webber was still making his judgements at Formula One race pace. However in the cooler environment of the stewards’ room, it was clearly one risk too many.

 

Meanwhile  Vettel’s peerless pace began right from the start. After a brief first-corner squabble with Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes, he simply blasted into the distance.

 

By the end of the opening lap, Vettel had opened a 1.9 second gap over Rosberg. By the end of the second, the margin was 4.1 seconds. On lap 25 his lead stood at over ten seconds when Daniel Riccardo’s Toro Rosso hit the wall and the safety car was deployed.

 

Vettel’s advantage was lost as the rest of the field closed up, but once the race was resumed he simply repeated the feat again. Even after the Red Bull driver had eased his pace a little to conserve the car’s brakes, he still took the chequered flag by a 32.6 second margin.

 

While the German’s performance was spectacular, it wasn’t though the drive of the race for me. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen finished second and third after drives which were among the best of their careers.

 

Alonso had qualified a disappointing seventh and Raikkonen 13^th. They fought back in the opening laps on Sunday then, when the safety car was deployed after Ricciardo’s accident, both the Ferrari and Lotus teams took a gamble.

 

While the four leading cars of Vettel, Rosberg, Webber and Hamilton stayed out on the track behind the safety car Alonso and Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, the Lotuses of Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, and the McLarens of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, all streamed into the pit lane to make early tire changes.

 

The drivers gambled on being able to make their tyres last for over 30 laps to the checkered flag, more than half the race distance, in the hope of passing the cars ahead as they made subsequent stops. The normal life of the tires on a street circuit such as Singapore is normally less than 20 laps.

 

Only Alonso and Raikkonen proved able to complete that feat. Grosjean was unlucky in suffering a mechanical failure, Massa was forced to make a third tyre stop, while the two McLaren drivers slipped down the order after their pace plummeted on worn-out tires.

 

That combination of pace and subtlety are the mark of the two classiest drivers in the field. Next year, to have Alonso and Raikkonen in the same team could be the fulfillment of a dream for Ferrari fans. Just so long as they don’t stop to give the other drivers lifts!