2010 Singapore Grand Prix - Flawless Fernando Triumphs In Singapore Night

Fernando Alonso managed to resist an all-race attack from Sebastian Vettel to clinch a priceless victory in today’s Singapore Grand Prix on the Marina Bay circuit.  The usually spectacular nightline sky was lit up by an eventful race dominated by Alonso and Vettel.  The pair finished a full half a minute ahead of the chasing pack, after sixty-one laps of torturous punishments in very humid conditions.

The real loser on the night was Lewis Hamilton, who suffered another damaging shunt, this time with fellow championship contender Mark Webber which saw the McLaren forced into a very costly retirement.  It was the key incident of the race that allowed Alonso and Vettel to make the decisive break on the rest of the field.  Despite an early Safety Car period to clear Vitantonio Liuzzi’s deranged Force India away from the Turn 10 chicane, the first half of the race turned into a processional affair, with the leading two driving around in circles and no sign of any dramatic action around the corner.

This changed on Lap 30 when Kamur Kobayashi, already nursing damage from heavy contact with Michael Schumacher seconds earlier, hit the tyre wall at Turn 18, just underneath the tunnel.  He was collected by the hapless Bruno Senna, which resulted in a second caution period.  At the restart, Webber was badly delayed by Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin which allowed Hamilton to grab a decisive run on the Aussie exiting Turn Five.  Into the braking zone for Turn Six, Hamilton was slightly ahead, but on the outside of the corner.  He turned in, thinking he had given Webber enough space, but slight contact was made.  As in Monza a fortnight ago, it was only relatively minor, but Hamilton had been critically hobbled and parked up the escape road with broken rear suspension, beating his arms on the cockpit in sheer frustration.  Lewis is now twenty points adrift with four races to go, and it now looks like a very tough task to regain the championship he won in such amazing fashion in 2008.  Webber just about survived to finish 3^rd, and maintain his championship lead, which now stands at nine points over Alonso.

All day, Vettel looked to have the measure of the former double world champion, but Alonso, a controversial winner in Singapore in 2008 for Renault was always a step infront and would raise his pace, should he come under any critical danger.  Despite a last-lap attack in backmarkers from the German, Vettel realised the valour was the better part of disgression and settled for the 18 points which keep him firmly in the title proceedings.  The other championship contender, Jenson Button looked unhappy all weekend with the balance of his McLaren kept his car on the road to finish 4^th, and therefore keep his hopes, though slim, still alive.

The most dramatic exit of the race came from the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen in the dying embers of the race.  Kovalainen had been spun around by the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Buemi, whilst dicing for 13^th place.  The contact damaged the engine on his car and set alight to his Cosworth Powerplant.  Foolishly, the team told Kovalainen to carry on past the pits, but he stopped on the start-finish straight, with his car very quickly turning into a flaming barbeque.  Heikki jumped out and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the clueless Singapore marshals, who looked very reluctant to help out.  Kovalainen did a great job to put the flames out on his own, but it will raise questions of the marshalling structure of street circuits. 

The other star of the race was Robert Kubica.  The Pole was running in a comfortable 6^th, when he had to pit on Lap 45 to replace a punctured tyre.  Undeterred, he drove out of his skin to pass six cars in eight laps, including one of the moves of the season around the outside of Adrian Sutil’s Force India at Turn Seven.  Kubica finished a very creditable 7^th, after his dramas.  Elsewhere, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello put in very solid drives to finish 5^th and 6^th, whilst the points were completed by Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and the unlucky Felipe Massa, who after starting last, due to a gearbox glitch in qualifying, spent all afternoon in traffic.  Since the conclusion of the race, Sutil has been penalised twenty seconds for gaining a track advantage at the start, dropping from 8^th to 10^th in the final classification.  Fellow German Nick Heidfeld has a very unhappy return to the sport, clashing with Liuzzi on the first lap, then later, being rammed into the wall by a fired-up Schumacher, who picked up front-wing damage and finished an unlucky 13^th.

Singapore produced a glamorous spectacle and although five men still remain in the championship battle, Lewis Hamilton may well have kissed his chances goodbye for another season.  For Fernando Alonso, the momentum is 100% behind the Spaniard and it will be interesting to see how he will fair in Suzuka in a fortnight’s time, which technically should be a Red Bull walkover.  However, Formula One is never settled on a piece of paper and with the drama that 2010 has thrown up so far this season, anything is possible in Japan next time out.