Timo Glock was in fine form all weekend in Singapore but his race was scuppered by the safety car.
| Timo Glock | Lucas di Grassi | |
| Qualifying position | 18 | 20 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q1) | 1’50.721 (-0.386) | 1’51.107 |
| Race position | 15 | |
| Average race lap | 2’02.971 (+1.411) | 2’01.560 |
| Laps | 49/61 | 59/61 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 2 |
Open lap times interactive chart in new window
Timo Glock
Ran well in practice and qualified highest among the new teams.
Virgin chose not to pit him during the safety car period which elevated him to the rare heights of ninth.
After being passed by Mark Webber he held onto tenth for nine laps as Adrian Sutil tried to find a way past.
Once Sutil had got through Glock struggled to keep the rest behind:
I stayed in front of all the other guys for a few laps but when Sutil overtook me there was no chance to keep the others in the pack behind me. When he passed I couldn’t recover quick enough because the tyres were dirty as a result of having to go offline.
Timo Glock
Unfortunately the timing of his pit stop coincided with the second safety car period. He had just been lapped by leader Fernando Alonso while rival Heikki Kovalainen remained unlapped.
That turned his five second lead over Kovalainen before the pit stop into a deficit of almost an entire lap. His hydraulic system later failed and ended his race.
Compare Timo Glock’s form against his team mate in 2010
Lucas di Grassi
It may be an ominous sign for di Grassi’s future with the team that they chose to send Jerome d’Ambrosio out in his car in first practice when the Brazilian rookie could have done with the time to learn the track.
As it was he did well enough, qualifying within a few tenths of his team mate.
He was the first of the new teams’ cars home in the race. It was essentially a case of ‘last man standing’ but that’s not to be sniffed at on a circuit as punishing as this one.
Compare Lucas di Grassi’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 Singapore Grand Prix
Enigma (@enigma)
27th September 2010, 14:06
Wouldn’t it be better for Glock to let the pack through? He’d lose around 5 seconds, but he’d have a clear track and he’d be able to get some gap to Kovalainen, Trulli and di Grassi and come out in front of them.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
28th September 2010, 2:53
I think he did well he was defending & for us it was looking nice to see that all the teams who are faster then him by 3-5 sec are now crawling behind him, though it compromises his race but it was a good show.
OEL
27th September 2010, 14:21
Bad job by di Grassi in handling the blue flags, giving Hamilton the chance to attack Webber after the safety car period. He should’ve done like Glock and just pulled over. But really, the current safety car rules is the big problem. The rules they used in 2008 would be much better now refuelling isn’t an issue, so the lapped cars could unlap themselves.
OEL
27th September 2010, 14:23
*when, not so. I’m tired! :(
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th September 2010, 19:03
my thoughts exactly…
Schumacher did the same later in the race while being lapped by Alonso and Vettel. He moved left and almost stopped.
Steph (@)
27th September 2010, 19:08
I do feel really bad for backmarkers as it’s an awful situation and I’m against the rule myself but I agree that di Grassi seemed a bit slow to respond. So did Bruno this race. A lotus (I think Jarno) held up Alonso in Canada and allowed Lewis to have a go.
They’re creating entertaining racing but they really shouldn’t be :P It probably was this bad in the past but it does seem like sometimes lapped cars are slow to respond to blue flags. That said, trying to race and watch for blue flags and then work out where on earth to go without causing a problem must be a headche at times.
MJ4
27th September 2010, 19:15
“Bad job” is an understatement. How big an ass must one be to behave like that.
He had 5 laps (behind the SC) to get to grips with the situation. He must have known that he has the two major championship contenders immediately behind him.
And yet, he proved incapable (or unwilling) to move over in time, not to interfere in their fight.
It is an injustice that such a moron should end up being the highest-ranked of the new teams’ pilots in this race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th September 2010, 19:16
Dealing with backmarkers is part of the challenge of leading a race. If anything, F1 drivers are fortunate that they generally race on tracks that are so long it rarely becomes a problem. And the blue flag rule is extremely kind to the race leader in F1.
Di Grassi got out of the way as quickly as he was required to. If this was IndyCar he wouldn’t have to have pulled over at all.
Steph (@)
27th September 2010, 19:34
“Dealing with backmarkers is part of the challenge of leading a race” I’d say with the blue flag rule they actually shouldn’t be but I do hate that rule.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
27th September 2010, 21:21
I agree Keith, if the leaders don’t have the skill to be overtaking backmarkers, they shouldn’t be leading. Especially with the blue flags.
bananarama
28th September 2010, 21:08
Actually I believe since the blue flag rule exists, the frontrunners trust (without turning off their brains obviousy) in the backmarkers to actually do what they were told .. get out of the way. If both start thinking about what to do at the same time, it usually ends in disaster.
MJ4
28th September 2010, 20:11
Oh, well. Apparently, they forgot to tell most of the other lapped drivers that they should pose as a challenge to the front-runners instead of being polite.
I guess all the Glocks and Schumachers of the field (you know, the guys who DID get out of the way as fast as they could) must be embarassed to see a real man with huge balls (i.e. Di Grassi) taking it to those WDC contender pussies.
Calum
27th September 2010, 16:31
The contrast between Virgin and Lotus was clear to see this weekend: Glock was and fire on Sunday, but as for Kovaleinen in the Lotus, he was …. oh wait!! :P
BasCB
27th September 2010, 18:59
It might still be, that Glock goes to Renault (and Petrov to Lotus after Trulli quits – that was from Will Buxtons blog?) and in that case Di Grassi (he is said to be a very good guy for testing as well) would possibly stay with d’Ambrosio as a team mate.
But Lotus surely have the better package this year, with Gascoyne and all those Toyota and FI engineers on board.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
27th September 2010, 21:27
I’m kind of hoping most of Buxton’s predictions come to fruition. Would be really interesting with Massa and Kobayashi at Sauber, Kubica at Ferrari, Glock and Räikkönen (?) at Renault. If half those changes happen, and Renault and Merc can both improve their cars for next year we could see even more drivers winning races next year.
soulmonkey
27th September 2010, 21:45
Because Kubica is so talented, it would be sad to see him play second fiddle to Alonso. I would prefer Kubica at RedBull or McLaren than at Ferrari.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
27th September 2010, 23:49
I think Red Bull and McLaren are the only 100% for sure lineups for next year though, and Ferrari have already shown an interest in Kubica.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
27th September 2010, 21:29
Glock was definitely more on fire than Kovalainen. Too bad he couldn’t hold his position a little longer. If he could have he would have had a chance at some points after the retirements that happened at the front of the pack.