Can Fernando Alonso convert his second pole position in a row into his second win in a row?
Lewis Hamilton romped to victory from pole position last year and he could be the biggest threat to the Ferrari driver at the start – even though he lines up behind Sebastian Vettel.
The start
Alonso may have lost his last pole position to Jenson Button at the start of the race but don’t expect the same to happen in Singapore.
With the benefit of starting on the clean side of a dusty track and a short run to the first corner, Alonso would have a good chance of getting to the first corner first whoever was alongside him.
His chances are amplified because the car occupying the number two position is, for the second year in a row in Singapore, Sebastian Vettel. And the Red Bulls have been sluggish off the line in recent races:
| Lap 1 position change | Sebastian Vettel | Mark Webber |
| Germany | -2 | -1 |
| Hungary | 0 | -1 |
| Belgium | +1 | -5 |
| Italy | -1 | -5 |
Vettel lost second place to Nico Rosberg at the start last year and then had to fend off Alonso, who started fifth. But he thinks it could go differently this year:
It?óÔé¼Ôäós the bad side of the grid with probably less grip, we will find out tomorrow.
But I think judging around the track and also the pit exit, obviously they have a new cleaning machine here for the asphalt which helped a lot throughout the weekend. OK, the water doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót disappear, but in terms of dust, I think it?óÔé¼Ôäós much better than it used to be for the last two years, so it should be fine.
I think there?óÔé¼Ôäós a picture right outside here where you can?óÔé¼Ôäót even see the last five cars starting into the first corner because there was so much dust. It will be similar tomorrow but probably not as bad which should give us a good chance and we hope for a good start, see what we can do.
Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton, third on the grid, fancies his chances of taking Vettel:
I am on the clean side of the grid and we have had the best starts for quite some time now, so fingers crossed that will continue tomorrow and it puts us in a good position.
Lewis Hamilton
With overtaking so difficult on the tight street circuit we saw drivers fighting especially hard for position on the first lap here last year.
Mark Webber tried to pass Alonso around the outside of turn seven and succeeded, though Alonso ran wide forcing both off the track. Webber was later penalised after he was deemed to have taken the position illegally – useful knowledge for any driver who finds themselves defending into turn seven.
Alonso is clearly in a strong position ahead of the start of the race. He is running without an F-duct on his car, but don’t expect his lower straight-line speed be a significant vulnerability: he was only 2.6kph slower than Vettel and 3.2kph slower than Hamilton through the speed trap in qualifying.
Massa’s comeback drive
While Alonso has no cars in front of him on the grid, Felipe Massa will start the race with the rest of the 23-car field in front of him.
Expect him to start on the super-soft tyres in the hope of a first-lap safety car deployment allowing him to get his mandatory tyre change out of the way. These tactics worked like a dream for Alonso in Monaco, because once he’d worked his way past the new teams the leaders had to pit to cover him, allowing him to finish sixth.
Whatever happens, it’s likely that at some point Massa is going to have to fight his way through traffic. How quickly he can do that will determine whether he can salvage anything from this weekend.
As we also saw with Alonso at Monaco, much time could be lost fighting with the new teams’ cars should any of those drivers choose to put up a fight. Just three laps behind Lucas di Grassi at Monaco cost Alonso around ten seconds.
If Massa fancies a spot of record-breaking, the lowest position on the starting grid a race has ever been won from is 22nd. That happened on a street circuit, when John Watson won for McLaren at Long Beach in 1983.
Strategy and weather
Should the race start on a damp track – as the first F1 sessions on Friday and Saturday did – remember that any driver who chooses to start the race on intermediate tyres (or full wets) does not have to satisfy the requirement to use both types of dry weather tyre during the race.
The wet running this weekend has shown that the track takes a long time to dry out – contrary to expectations that the warm ambient temperatures would encourage rapid drying. The more sheltered parts of the track, such as turn five, take even longer than the rest.
Assuming the race starts on a sufficiently dry track all the drivers in the top ten will be starting on the super-soft tyres they qualified on.
Whatever the weather does it’s hard to make a convincing case for anyone other than Alonso winning this one. As the man himself somewhat acknowledged:
There are no big worries for tomorrow. The start is OK, the pace is OK, the car is OK and the weather is OK, both conditions.
Fernando Alonso
What do you think will happen in the Singapore Grand Prix? Share your analysis of the race in the comments.
2010 Singapore Grand Prix
- Technical review: Singapore Grand Prix
- Webber: Ferrari have momentum (Video)
- Final tracks suit McLaren better – Button
- No change in my approach – Hamilton
- Williams expect to keep up with Renault
- 2010 Singapore Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Who was the best driver of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
- Fourth win of 2010 is Alonso’s best yet (Ferrari race review)
- Poor pace and another Hamilton DNF hits title hopes (McLaren race review)
- Webber has champion’s luck but lacks Vettel’s pace (Red Bull race review)
Images ?é?® Ferrari spa, www.mclaren.com
Ivan Vinitskyy
25th September 2010, 22:40
3 things can stop Alonso:
Hamilton at the start
Safety car
Bad pit stop
Don’t think any of those have a great chance of stopping him though.
rfs
25th September 2010, 22:57
I think only poor reliability can stop Alonso. Ferrari have been having electronic problems all weekend.
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:10
I do think he will have to do the tactical thinking himself here (like he did in Qualli) as Ferrari are pretty much used to making wrong pit stop calls and mixups here in Singapore.
And another thing that might get him are the backmarkers. It is not too easy to pass them here with little room between the walls and it takes only a slippery bit of track to have a accident.
miguelF1O (@)
26th September 2010, 3:13
the only thing that hamilton can do to stop alonso at start is crashing anyway vettel is the favourite cause tomorow nothing will happen simple pits victory for redbull
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
26th September 2010, 4:26
Engine trouble can too hamper his chance but I would love to see his battle with Hamilton like Canada.
gc.it
26th September 2010, 11:58
Let’s hope they also got rid of those “experiments” they did yesterday before Massa stopped on track :-S
It could be tricky
F1iLike
25th September 2010, 23:25
To me it looks like Mark Webber rather than Red Bull has been sluggish of the line in recent races.
Skett
25th September 2010, 23:51
Errr, Vettels not exactly looked rapid off the line either
F1iLike
25th September 2010, 23:52
Judging by the chart in the article, there is quite a difference between the two of them =)
AK
26th September 2010, 0:20
Apart from Spa Webber has been sluggish in qualifying for a while now. And to compound the problem he’s starts off the line are even worse.
I’m Australian and in his corner but Webbo hasn’t dominated (i.e. faster in qualifying AND in the race) his teammate since Turkey.
Looks like the pressure has got to him. Or perhaps he’s been put in his place at the team and that has him down on confidence.
F1iLike
26th September 2010, 1:46
I’d say he just had a high between spain and turkey and that high got him to what happend att turkey. That arrogance got to him and he tried blocking from behind. He hasn’t dominated Vettel either before or after those odd 3 races.. But still, he leads the WC so..
Toby Bushby
26th September 2010, 2:53
F1iLike, did you REALLY just insinuate that Webber is responsible for the collision with Vettel in Turkey? Are you actually Christian Horner under a psuedonym? :P
AK
26th September 2010, 7:18
That’s a ridicules suggestion. Webber didn’t turn into him from behind, Dr Marko’s toy-boy turned into him when he was hardly half a car length ahead.
F1iLike
26th September 2010, 21:25
Are you guys for real? Man there’s some serious hate for Vettel out there. And obviously very little sense of racing etiquette. Did you see what Schumacher did at Silverstone towards Vettel? Very much alike, and even tighter closing UNTIL Vettel was beside and then sufficently past him.. Learn racing before you blame.
David BR
26th September 2010, 0:15
Hamilton has got to be smart this time. A good start and he should nick second. After that, hassle Alonso a bit (maybe test the Ferrari`s reliability) but no heroics are needed with Webber behind and perhaps liable to drop even further at the start.
Andrew White
26th September 2010, 0:20
I wouldn’t put all my money behind Alonso just yet. The potential for a damp track brings with it the possibility of a safety car or two. Turn 5 looks tricky and leads onto the best passing opportunity on the track, so Alonso will have to be on his guard.
Keith44
26th September 2010, 0:38
Lewis just has to sit it out. If my maths are correct he only has to finish in the first 5 to stay points in front of Alonso. After Vettels pressroom comments today, let Seb hassle Alonso, either Alonso’s temperament, or the car’s engine reliability questions, will do the rest.We saw how he was with the younger Lewis, he’ll react the same with SV.
Alonso is out of replacement engines which, in my book means, he’s out of the championship race.
After LH’s last race incident, better just to let the other two wrangle – unless SV is so slow at the start that LH can reasonably risk-free slot in behind Alonso. Then just keep the pressure on – and watch out for the smoking engine in front!
But hey, let’s hope they all come back safe.
Steve
26th September 2010, 7:05
there are 8 engines for the season; that means some engines have to be run three times….
i.e. alonso has no BRAND NEW engines, true…., but, most of his engines dont have a full race weekend on them, and somewhere everyone is going to have to run an engine or two, for THREE weekends
Chris Burland
26th September 2010, 7:49
Because of some changes made to the spec of the engine, and the units which failed earlier in the year, Ferrari are planning to only use engines 7 & 8 in the last 5 races. They’ll both end up doing 4 races on each of these two engines. [source: BBC in on of the practice sessions]
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
26th September 2010, 0:44
I wouldn’t be so sure!
I think something will happen, and one of the top 5 will be out before lap 30!. It could be a very nice GP this one!
F1Fan
26th September 2010, 1:24
Keith, I disagree that it’s hard to make a case against Alonso, for 2 reasons, weather aside: (a) I think there is a non-trivial probability that Alonso suffers some sort of an engine problem, even temporarily, and (b) the RBR is indeed the fastest car around here, not the Ferrari, even though the difference is pretty small.
If Vettel can retain 2nd position after the first lap, he should be able to stay very close to Alonso, in which case we could have a repeat of Monza, only this time w/ Alonso being chased instead.
This is turning out exactly as I had predicted, a Vettel-Alonso affair, and of course my prediction that Webber will lose the WDC will also come true. Even in the best car on the grid, his mediocrity won’t allow him to win the title.
bosyber
26th September 2010, 9:12
Not a Webber fan there, I guess. Webber had a pretty good race after the start in both Spa and Monza, actually; but in Monza Vettel had a better strategy, again.
I do agree that if Vettel can stay in second, he might be able to chase Alonso, but I think you are discounting not only Webber too much, but certainly Hamilton as well, who might well be on Vettel’s heels, and Button could also be right behind.
F1Fan
26th September 2010, 11:45
I like Webber as a person. But the fact is he is no more than a slightly above-average driver. He may be quick on occasion, but he lacks in race management and consistency … and makes too many mental errors.
As for the race, McLaren is not a threat for the win, their pace is at least 3 tenths off the Ferrari & RBR. Only if it rains we will see a winner other than Alonso or Vettel.
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:14
I would rather say, that RBR has lost him (and Vettel) a lot of positions through bad pit calls in the first few races. Otherwise he has done pretty well for himself.
The starts are seemingly something with the car, and being slow on the getaway from P4-6 means that you are often on the wrong line for corners losing you more positions in the first sector.
roberttty
26th September 2010, 1:54
Latest weather forecast: guess what, it’s going to rain in the afternoon
http://app2.nea.gov.sg/12hnowcast.aspx
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
26th September 2010, 2:36
I sicerely hope Alonso gets a puncture or an engine failure or gets held up by a backmarker or screws up his pit stop or runs out of fuel. This is not meant to be an inflammatory comment – I genuinely believe that Alonso winning the WDC will be the worst possible thing for the sport because Ferrari will have undermined one of the best seasons of racing in years by buying the title.
Paper Tiger
26th September 2010, 10:49
Don’t worry. On the last race of the season, Vettel will be leading Webber into the last corner, with Webber needing to win to take the title off Alonso. Horner will get on the radio and say “WEBBER IS FASTER THAN YOU. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” Vettel will pull over, allowing Webber to take the title. Red Bull will be fined $100,000 and Webber will become WDC.
That’s what’s going to happen.
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:15
What a cynical thought!
Starstrike
26th September 2010, 21:14
Almost right. It will be exactly as you say, except that Vettel won’t pull over, and Alonso will win the WDC. No love lost between those two teammates.
alonso
26th September 2010, 15:25
keep the hope up
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
26th September 2010, 4:09
I don’t think we will see overtaking tomorrow but Massa who will have a very busy night working his way past the slower cars. I want a damp track which will be trick for the driver & will sure mix things up beautifully.
My top 3 goes with either Alonso or Hamilton winning it with Webber P3. & remember both Alonso & Hamilton are past winner on this circuit both will want for the championship & for glory to stay in front of one another that will be something to watch today.
Pole sitter
26th September 2010, 4:26
I think Lewis has got to watch out for madman vettel who will likely point his car to the right at the start. If Lewis does get in front of him I expect him to at minimum have a look at Alonso at the end of a straight on lap one. Lewis should try to do to Alonso what Alonso did to button in Monza. I think the Mclaren is sufficiently fast to keep up with the Ferrari.
Regis
26th September 2010, 4:55
What a great lap from Fernando, it should be a great race
Dev
26th September 2010, 5:04
RBR is going to be faster in the race, i’m sure RBR will pits will take em ahead of Alonso in the middle of the race.
Scalextric
26th September 2010, 5:19
Alonso can’t get too comfortable if Vettel’s in a position to attempt a pass on him.
Osiris
26th September 2010, 6:14
Lap 1: Alonso starts slow, tries to cut off Vettel by going across, Vettel fights back, perhaps a minor prang, Hamilton is in the lead meanwhile, JB second, yellow flag / safety car, McLaren procession start to finish.
Or so I wish :)
luca
26th September 2010, 9:57
You forgot Merlin the Magician, King Arthur and Christina Aguilera. Ah, also all the fanatics run after! :)
jagogen
26th September 2010, 6:30
Do not forget that Red bull’s qualifying pace is much greater than they race pace,we have seen it for 14 races now.So with the top three guys covering two tenths of a second,this is going to be very challenging for Vettel specialy in this track which was supposed to be their territory.Well it isn’t anymore.
Alex Bkk
26th September 2010, 7:28
I do hope that a Ferrari with a fresh engine at the back of the pack doesn’t go unnoticed by the TV crews.
Should be a great one… well at least the first lap should be a 10.
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:17
I hope so. First 2 laps following a great fight at the front of the grid, followed by some nice laps of seeing Massa pick of the back of the fielt up to 13th position before the pitstops.
Nick
26th September 2010, 7:46
The fact that Alonso has not made any school boy errors for the past 1 or 2 GPs does not mean that he won’t return to “form”.
Alex Bkk
26th September 2010, 8:51
Or you could say that Alonso is back in form. School boys aren’t voted the best driver on the F1 grid by their peers and they don’t win 2 World Driving Championships. He could very well be on his way to a third.
emil
26th September 2010, 11:10
:)) exactly ..i hope crash out in the very last corner in the very last lap of the race
jihelle (@jihelle)
26th September 2010, 8:16
I don’t know about the first four. What I’ll be watching is the third, fourth and fifth rows. With drivers such as Webber, Barichello, Kubica, Rosberg, Kobayashi and Schumacher, things are going to be tense. Webber could very well get hit from the back and Kobayashi (definitively the best rookie of the year, he humiliated Heidfeld in qualifying) is very much into “banzaï driving”. I can’t wait.
bosyber
26th September 2010, 9:13
Yes, as usual, those rows are where the action will be most during the first lap(s), I agree.
Enigma (@enigma)
26th September 2010, 9:46
I wouldn’t say he humiliated Heidfeld – this weekend is Heidfeld’s first time driving this car, and with such tyres. It was expected he’d be slow.
Oliver
26th September 2010, 9:54
Why is banzai driving associated with every Japanese driver? Are you just saying this to sound enlightened?
Kobayashi has had Only one to two incidents this season that resulted in an accident and you could say was his fault. The others, he was taken out by other cars.
To be honest he has had much less brain fades than Vettel.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th September 2010, 10:12
Well said.
jihelle (@jihelle)
26th September 2010, 11:30
I think you’re getting confused between “banzai” and “gyokusai”, the latter meaning “suicide attack” and the former meaning “courage” (actually “longevity” as something so brave it would remain for eternity). Kobayashi moves on Button last year and others this year are pure “banzai”. I stick to my words and I have the utmost respect for Kobayashi. And I am not saying this to sound enlightened. I am just calling a spade a spade.
Oliver
26th September 2010, 11:55
OK OK OK got you mate. But quite often, none Japanese speakers associate Banzai, with some form of Kamikaze attack, so its good you made the meaning clear.
I just have to update my F1 phrase book likewise a few others.
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:19
Fully agree, some Rookie mistakes aside (and what Rookie did not make them this year) he has not been more accident prone than others.
DavidS
26th September 2010, 14:07
Brain Fades, you mean like that pass on Schumacher and then binning it?
SPIDERman
26th September 2010, 9:34
I have this sneaky feeling that Sebastian will take out Alonso before the second corner the way he pranged Button out recently.
If safety car plays in..then we should see one of the mercedes cars finishing up in top 6 places..
Unless something crazy happens, a mclaren one two is seemingly on the cards.
I am amazed at how much those BBC pundits are praising Alonso to the skies.
Soumya Banerjee
26th September 2010, 10:10
And i am amazed at your flawless prediction.
SPIDERman
26th September 2010, 9:44
keith,
how do i load my blogging avatar onto this site please? could you please send me the link?
Steph (@)
26th September 2010, 9:58
Go to gravatar.com and register for free :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th September 2010, 10:12
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/08/16/get-a-picture-next-to-your-name/
Tango
26th September 2010, 11:37
Thanks, I was wondering myself, it is about time i have an avatar
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:21
I like your gravatar. The marsipulami, thats a very cool one.
Squirrel
26th September 2010, 10:14
Rain is now looking very unlikely. It’s been sunny all afternoon about 2km from the track with no rain clouds in sight. The weather may fluctuate a lot in this region, but I doubt we’ll see a wet or even damp race tonight.
Raj
26th September 2010, 10:44
It seems we r gng to see dry race. according to official singapore govt forecast no rain till 3am in morning. I am arnd 20min drive from circuit & it looks cloudy but rain seems to be out of singapore for day & night.
http://app2.nea.gov.sg/3hnowcast.aspx
Keamo
26th September 2010, 11:20
Thank you so much for that info. I’ve been wanting to get the weather from someone next to the venue in Singapore.
Tango
26th September 2010, 11:39
I’d be interested to know who has done quali on a rain setup and who hasn’t
Icthyes (@icthyes)
26th September 2010, 10:50
I think the most we can say is that it looks likely Vettel won’t be first in a normal race. 2nd on the grid, history of bad starts recently from Red Bull and their advantage has been far less in the race, so with their advantage being only about 2 tenths in qualifying they might get out-paced.
For the actual winner, we may see Hamilton in P2 after Turn 3 and then mugging Alonso down Raffles Boulevard, a Monza-style fight, or maybe just Alonso pulling out 2 tenths every lap and waltzing to victory.
But if there’s a Safety Car…
Keith44
26th September 2010, 11:04
#F1Fan
Sorry, we have crossed comms here. I wasn’t saying it was hard to make a case against Alonso, actually the reverse (oops. didn’t he have a problem with reverse in the last 48 hours?)
Even allowing for a ‘margin of error’ in the reliability of the Ferraris (who’d buy a 458 for example http://sweden.blogspot.com/2010/09/heated-rivalry.html ) we can never allow enough of a margin for Alonso’s temperament. A wide margin is needed after Vettel’s ‘rejoneo style goading of the bull’ yesterday.
.
The main thrust of my argument was for LH not to go like a bull at a fence (!?!). He has nothing to prove against Alonso or Vettel. Coast through the antics and solidify a title lead… we don’t need any first and only lap heroics.
Marcello
26th September 2010, 11:07
Alonso off the start,
Hamilton diving in on Vettel, they touch, Hamilton goes straight off and damages his car terminally, Vettel gets a puncture and end up last behind Massa, Webber pips Button off the line..Alonso 1st, Webber 2nd, Button 3rd
emil
26th September 2010, 11:16
Alonso stuck in the first gear and make massive blow to his engine :))…and than Vettel and Hamilton battle for first place ….Button take advantage of this battle and blow past Vettel ..in the end
1.Hamilton
2.Button
3.Vettel
Marcello
26th September 2010, 11:13
@ Raj and any1..help!
sorry for my ignorance but I’m looking @ Rajs weather map….which section of the map is the circuit in?
semirossi
26th September 2010, 11:55
To all who know the rules better than I do…
Regarding Massas engine change…
Can Ferrari benefit somehow from Massas’ engine change in this race? Maybe the team can let Massa – do the teamplayer trick and – run the engine at sub 100% in this race and give it to Alonso for use it in next races. Isn’t it correct that Alonso has to use this last engine for the remaining races? Are the engine limits personal and not bound to teams? If this is possible… could Massa have been led to fake a stall on track in quali, just in order to be able to change the engine, and then make it available to Alonso for future races? :)
BasCB
26th September 2010, 12:24
No, the engine is only for Massas car, it cannot be used for Alonso without penalty for Alonso.
Alonso can use most engines except the one that blew in Malaysia, however Ferrari already confirmed they will use engines 7&8 for the next races till the end of the year (these engines are of the newest spec.)
Wheel Master
26th September 2010, 12:01
Hour to go and I can’t wait, its really time for Hamilton to make me happy again !!
djdaveyp
26th September 2010, 12:11
For me, anybody can win except for Vettel or Alonso and I’ll be happy.
Webber deserves one, its about time he had some luck.
I’ve only got Lewis and Jenson on an outside chance of winning the championship now. And I am a big supporter of both of them.
I really dislike Alonso. I am so disappointed that he seems to jump into sewers constantly and come out smelling of roses on the other side! And Vettels attitude this year has really annoyed me, I used to like the kid!