Red Bull have the edge on race pace in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Singapore, 2011

“Not too bad” was Sebastian Vettel’s typically understated assessment of his car’s performance around the streets of Singapore.

But with the fastest time of the day and promising race pace at the end of the second session, Vettel must be eyeing a potential ninth win of the season.

Here’s all the data from the second practice session:

Longest stint comparison

Red Bull’s stint pace looks strong, with Ferrari and McLaren not quite able to match it.
While Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton maintained a similar pace over their first five laps, Vettel was able to gain lap time as his fuel load came down. All three were on super soft tyres.
For a clearer comparison, look at Nico Rosberg’s stint in the Mercedes – he was running a higher fuel level than his team mate and clearly lost pace throughout the stint. “The critical element will be the longevity of the tyres and understanding how to work them to the maximum for as long as possible,” said Ross Brawn.

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Sebastian Vettel	112.893	112.737	114.208	112.77	112.702	112.429	116.762	112.374	112.667	113.021
Mark Webber	113.326	112.659	113.975	119.577	112.756	112.662	114.355	114.061
Lewis Hamilton	113.361	113.352	114.334	122.313	113.545	117.985
Jenson Button	115.498	114.427	119.648	109.751
Fernando Alonso	112.388	112.16	112.332	118.297	112.546	115.131	112.809
Felipe Massa	112.911	123.943	112.657	118.149	114.816	126.126
Michael Schumacher	115.669	116.049	116.531	116.833
Nico Rosberg	116.394	117.657	115.295	115.869	116.491	116.607	117.227	116.91	119.18
Bruno Senna	117.816	116.931	116.226	116.348	116.383	117.675	118.56	119.701	118.9	118.186
Vitaly Petrov	117.477	119.215	118.296	118.505	118.847	121.556
Rubens Barrichello	117.184	115.55	118.285	117.399	116.237	116.187	119.579
Pastor Maldonado	117.636	116.776	117.176	116.455	116.941	116.957	117.028	122.743	127.134
Adrian Sutil	116.864	115.403	116.899	116.131	115.952	115.923	115.927	118.366	117.136
Paul di Resta	111.465	123.925	118.594
Kamui Kobayashi	120.297	123.041	119.426	117.184	117.151	118.41	121.681
Sergio Perez	116.218	117.092	115.956	116.452	116.608	116.621
Sebastien Buemi	112.395	118.585	112.257	121.043	112.649	112.389
Jaime Alguersuari	115.439	112.172	112.017	112.261
Heikki Kovalainen	116.251	117.618	117.116	117.4	118.845	117.748
Jarno Trulli	116.069	115.15	119.318	115.893	121.023	115.363	115.047	115.381
Daniel Ricciardo	120.726	121.135	122.021	123.031	125.331	121.108	120.768	124.838
Vitantonio Liuzzi	121.815	122.063	121.576	122.729	125.473	123.741
Timo Glock	118.833	118.748	119.327	120.837	121.465	120.684	120.225
Jerome d’Ambrosio	120.256	119.514	119.951	119.524	122.208	120.836	121.051	124.647	121.584	121.794	121.777

Ultimate lap times

An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.

Alonso had a little more time in hand on his fastest run.
However both Vettel and Hamilton aborted earlier runs on super soft tyres due to traffic, suggesting they could have gone quicker on fresher tyres.

	Car	Driver	Car	Ultimate lap	Gap	Deficit to best
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’46.374		0.000
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’46.416	0.042	0.159
3	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’47.115	0.741	0.000
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’47.120	0.746	0.000
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’47.265	0.891	0.000
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’48.418	2.044	0.000
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’48.866	2.492	0.000
8	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’49.152	2.778	0.599
9	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’49.578	3.204	0.000
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’49.701	3.327	0.029
11	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’49.792	3.418	0.000
12	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	1’50.241	3.867	0.000
13	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’50.345	3.971	0.000
14	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’50.399	4.025	0.000
15	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’50.677	4.303	0.113
16	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’50.897	4.523	0.000
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1’50.937	4.563	0.000
18	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’50.987	4.613	1.270
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1’51.835	5.461	0.115
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1’52.489	6.115	0.000
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’53.451	7.077	0.128
22	25	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1’53.956	7.582	0.693
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1’54.500	8.126	0.254
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1’55.198	8.824	0.000

Complete practice times

Despite the gap to his team mate, Mark Webber believes he knows where he can find time on his set-up: “I need to find a bit more pace, but there’s a bit of low hanging fruit which we can grab tonight, which will be good for us. Seb’s going alright, so I just need to find a bit more and get into it tomorrow.”
Michael Schumacher said: “the difference between the tyres is quite big”. Drivers were finding improvements of one second per lap or more when switching from the soft to the super soft tyres.
Jerome d’Ambrosio and the two HRTs were both outside 107% of Vettel’s time (1’53.820). Liuzzi was furthest away, 1.3 seconds off the notional 107% time. But in the circumstances of qualifying, with the front runners likely to do their times on soft tyres, they have a good chance of getting into the race.
The removal of some kerbs around the track may have helped drivers reduce their times. These are likely to be reinstated tomorrow.
However not everyone everyone was using the extra space offered by the removal of the kerbs. Hamilton said: “We don’t yet know whether or not the kerbs will be reinstated tonight, so I continued driving as though the kerbs were there. If they’re not replaced, then we should gain an extra couple of tenths by being able to run as wide as some of the others did.”

	Car	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Stint lap	At time	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’46.374		3/3	62	32
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’46.575	0.201	1/2	59	28
3	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’47.115	0.741	3/3	69	22
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’47.120	0.746	1/2	50	23
5	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’47.265	0.891	1/2	63	28
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’48.418	2.044	1/3	70	27
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’48.866	2.492	1/3	62	31
8	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’49.578	3.204	1/3	62	27
9	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’49.730	3.356	1/2	52	29
10	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’49.751	3.377	4/4	20	9
11	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’49.792	3.418	1/2	49	14
12	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	1’50.241	3.867	1/2	48	31
13	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’50.345	3.971	1/1	92	8
14	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1’50.399	4.025	1/2	49	29
15	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’50.790	4.416	2/2	11	28
16	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1’50.897	4.523	1/1	64	24
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1’50.937	4.563	3/3	61	30
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1’51.950	5.576	3/3	60	26
19	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’52.257	5.883	3/6	9	14
20	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1’52.489	6.115	2/3	64	25
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1’53.579	7.205	1/2	62	25
22	25	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1’54.649	8.275	2/4	76	25
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1’54.754	8.380	2/4	58	29
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1’55.198	8.824	3/5	60	25

Speed trap

Unusually, the two Mercedes drivers are more or less at opposite ends of the speed chart.

	#	Driver	Car	Engine	Max speed	Gap
1	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India	Mercedes	291.3
2	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari	290.1	1.2
3	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	Mercedes	290	1.3
4	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull	Renault	289.4	1.9
5	15	Paul di Resta	Force India	Mercedes	288.2	3.1
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Renault	288	3.3
7	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	Mercedes	287.5	3.8
8	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	Ferrari	287.4	3.9
9	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	Ferrari	286.9	4.4
10	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber	Ferrari	286.8	4.5
11	18	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	286.6	4.7
12	19	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	286.2	5.1
13	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	Renault	286	5.3
14	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	Renault	285.4	5.9
15	25	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin	Cosworth	284.7	6.6
16	4	Jenson Button	McLaren	Mercedes	283.9	7.4
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin	Cosworth	283.3	8
18	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	Cosworth	282.7	8.6
19	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT	Cosworth	282.3	9
20	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT	Cosworth	282	9.3
21	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus	Renault	279.8	11.5
22	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus	Renault	279.8	11.5
23	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	Cosworth	279.7	11.6
24	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	278.7	12.6

2011 Singapore Grand Prix

Browse all 2010 Singapore Grand Prix articles

14 comments on “Red Bull have the edge on race pace in Singapore”

PJTierney (@)
23rd September 2011, 17:46

Jerome d’Ambrosio and the two ~~Virgins~~ HRTs were both outside 107% of Vettel’s time (1’53.820). Liuzzi was furthest away, 1.3 seconds off the notional 107% time.

Minor error in an otherwise awesome article :)

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd September 2011, 17:49

Just changed it, thanks PJ.

@HoHum (@hohum)
23rd September 2011, 18:00

I’d have thought that this track would be all about max downforce, yet once again FI are at the top of the speed times and are looking none to shabby for a midfield team overall.

George (@george)
23rd September 2011, 18:38

Vettel looks like he’s going to annihilate all this weekend, Webber is nowhere by comparison.

BasCB (@bascb)
23rd September 2011, 20:21

Standard issue 2011!
Fixy (@)
24th September 2011, 10:41

But if he wins with 1 or 100 seconds on Alonso nothing will change. The points awarded are the same and if Alonso, Webber and Button finish right behind him, Vettel won’t be mathematically champion.
On a side note, if Massa was 4th and Alonso 5th, would Ferrari issue team orders?

Paul A (@paul-a)
23rd September 2011, 19:28

The “ultimate lap times” are most informative, showing apparently Vettel and Alonso in a class of their own. But has anyone had the time to compare these numbers with the “quali” times afterwards? It would be interesting to know which drivers have the skill to approach their “ultimate” on a single lap that really counts.

raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
24th September 2011, 1:46

That’s what the “Deficit to best” stands for. It’s basically their current lap time as on the P2 scoreboards, minus their ultimate lap. These would all be from their quali simulations on the supersofts; as all of them set green or purple sectors on those tyres

Hallard (@hallard)
23rd September 2011, 19:40

Interesting to see what McLaren is doing in practice…

It appears (from the practice pics at least, since I havent had a chance to watch the practice sessions yet) that Lewis is running the small-flap wing that they had on at Spa and Monza, and Jenson is running the large-flap wing that they’ve used at every other race.

Being that the small-flap wing seems to offer better qualifying pace for them (due to more effective DRS), and the large-flap wing has seemed to offer better race pace, my guess is that they are trying to figure out if they can afford to sacrifice race pace for better qualifying position. This is somewhat supported by Lewis’ trap speed being nearly 4km/h faster than Jenson’s (although that isnt taking into account the multitude of other variables that could contribute to this).

Just speculation on my part of course, but I love when we get any insight into how teams run their practice strategies!

bosyber (@bosyber)
23rd September 2011, 20:33

Interesting observation!

I also think it will be fascinating to see how the midfield fight – here Mercedes, FI, Renault, Sauber (to some extent) will turn out. Even Williams seems to be in it somewhat, if they can get through Q2, that is. STR didn’t do a long stint, due to that shunt by Buemi and a problem on Alguesuari’s car so they are harder to judge, but should be about there too.
Mads (@mads)
23rd September 2011, 20:39

After looking at the pictures I think you are absolutely right. Lewis rear wing clearly has a much smaller flap compared to the one on Jenson’s car.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
24th September 2011, 1:47

I would think it’s the reverse; if they could sacrifice quali position for a bit more race pace