Hamilton hits the top, Maldonado hits the wall

2014 Singapore Grand Prix second practice

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Lewis Hamilton was quickest in the second practice session which was disrupted after Pastor Maldonado crashed.

The Lotus driver ran wide at the exit of turn ten and hit the wall on the right. He was unhurt, but came to a stop and brought out the red flags.

The timing of Maldonado’s crash disrupted the runs of several drivers who had put on the super-soft tyres for their qualifying simulations. They included Nico Rosberg, who had just gone fastest in the first sector, but ended the session 13th-fastest.

Hamilton set his best time after Maldonado’s car had been recovered, and with the super-soft tyres around two-and-a-half seconds than the soft tyres, he set the quickest time of the day.

Mercedes did not have as large an advantage over their rivals as usual. Fernando Alonso was second, just over a tenth of a second slower, with team mate Kimi Raikkonen a few tenths behind.

Daniel Ricciardo did much of Red Bull’s running while Sebastian Vettel’s car was repaired following his engine failure at the end of first practice. The team completed the work in time for him to do five laps at the end of the session and set the fifth-fastest time.

The Singapore heat continued to take its toll: Max Chilton came to a stop when the turbo on his Marussia’s Ferrari engine failed.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’47.49025
214Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’47.6230.13328
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’47.7900.30028
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’48.0310.54129
51Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’48.0410.5515
620Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’48.3580.86833
722Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’48.4350.94530
811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’48.6531.16330
927Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’48.7511.26131
1026Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’48.7701.28031
1125Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’48.8001.31033
128Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’49.0621.57233
136Nico RosbergMercedes1’49.0751.58530
1413Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’49.1391.64913
1599Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’49.1701.68034
1621Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’49.2901.80037
1719Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’49.3611.87129
1877Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’49.9712.48128
1917Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’50.6123.12224
204Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1’51.5584.06821
2110Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1’52.0754.58533
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’52.9365.44631

Image © Singapore GP/Sutton

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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45 comments on “Hamilton hits the top, Maldonado hits the wall”

  1. After the FP1, I thought Ferrari as usual going for the FP glory, but it seems their performance deficit to Merc powered cars has been reduced after returning to a high downforce circuit.
    I dont expect them to beat Merc pairs, bur they would be in close proximity with RB duo for most of the race in my opinion. And who knows, given the nature of the circuit, SC intervention is almost inevitable, and with a bit of luck, Ferrari can extend their run of years with at least a win
    A hilarious headline by the way :)

  2. Hamilton hits the top, Maldonado hits the wall

    In other news, F1 becomes as predictable as ever.

    God lord that guy… can’t he just not crash for a change??

    1. I feel like I’m one of the girls watching Jason Biggs in the webcam in the first American Pie movie… Again ?!!

    2. The real news would be like: “Maldonado didn’t crash this weekend!”

  3. I know that it’s a tight circuit and everything but Maldonado?!?! The guy is getting better and better in what he is doing the best….

  4. Hmm,
    how where the track conditions?
    And why the big gap from Rosberg to Hamilton? Setup tweaking? Or trying out different route options like Monza ?:)

  5. That Mercedes photo would be wallpaper goodness in a larger size.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      19th September 2014, 19:26

      @trublu personally I never liked those blurry pics. It’s art, I know, it may be hard to take that pic, but I do much the same if my hand trembles while clicking the camera.

    2. Those blurred “motion” photos look terrible, can’t stand them.

  6. Jules is showing time after time that he is in another league from Marussia and Caterham guys…

    1. Seriously, he’s almost a second faster than Max, and only 7/10th’s slower than Bottas. I really hope he at least finds himself in at least a midfield team soon; perhaps Sauber before the eventual move to Ferrari.

  7. After two sessions of Hamilton at the top of the times I am more certain than ever that we will see a Rosberg pole tomorrow…

    1. Rosberg would have most certainly gone quickest if it wasn’t for the yellow flags coming out.

      Hamilton looked super comfortable in FP1 but looks to have messed his setup up in FP2.

      1. no he wouldnt have.nico was a 5th of a tenth quicker in the first sector.but lewis was quicker in the second sector,despite not being happy with his car.

        1. Err I’ll think you find Rosberg was slower because of the yellow flags caused by Maldonado at turn 10!

    2. Agreed. It looked from the long runs like Rosberg was a bit happier than Hamilton as well, I think.

      1. @marcusbreese – Hamilton’s long run on the super-soft was definitely stronger than Nico’s, so I expect to some extent business as usual in the race, with Lewis with a pace advantage, but Rosberg’s car looked much more settled on low fuel. Not that Hamilton and his team of highly competent engineers can’t transfer that attribute onto his car for tomorrow…

        1. @willam-brierty

          Can you tell me if the long run pace was noticable i hope you are right as Ham really needs to keep this momentum. He needs a pole imo aswell.

        2. True Hamilton was quicker on the long run but his stint was also way shorter.

          IMO Rosberg for pole and victory, he appears the smoother driver this weekend.

  8. wow, wasn’t expecting that much gap from williams

  9. Maldonado feels the spirit of Briatore.

  10. Actually laughed out loud at the headline! Bless Maldonado… He tries his best!

    1. True, and I think the wall should get a penalty for causing a crash.

    2. I did too! Excellent writing, Keith.

  11. It’s all a bit Noah’s Ark isn’t it? So much for giving control back to the drivers…

  12. Ham the fastest today. Nico is probably trying to hide his hand. Let’s see… Alonso was very fast. And RBR show good potential. However, and again, huge bad luck for Vettel. He’s very, very close to be the first sanctioned driver for using more than 5 engines…Another record, probably. Sadly, all is happen him a circuit that as given him so many successes.
    As for the radio censorship rule…nothing to add in fact. Still a stupid rule.

    1. @yes-master
      Wasn’t Kvyat got a 10 Place Grid Penalty in Monza for using 6th engine

  13. I can never visualise the Singapore GP’s layout very well. Is turn 10 near the part where it turns left underneath the stands?

    1. @elbasque no, that is turn 18 (to quote Guillaume Rocquelin last year: “Ricciardo’s crashed, usual place, turn 18”). Turn 10 is the old Singapore Sling chicane which was replaced last year by a single left hand corner.

  14. Keith who wrote this headline? Because a clone copy of this headline is on Planetf1.com. So who is plagiarizing who? lol

    1. This was posted at 4:07, looks like the PlanetF1 article was posted at 4:13 so probably just a coincedence.

  15. Rosberg struggling or just doing some heavy fuel running?

    1. Maldonado crash hindered his flying lap

  16. There’s got to be a different way Lotus can find funding than Maldonado! There has to be!

    1. There must be a point where his funding is equalled out in car repair costs ?
      Im guessing you cant walk into Repco and get suspension arms for an E22,

  17. I’m amazed at what Perez is doing to Hulk recently.

    I don’t think we’re going to know about LH/NR until Q3.

    Anyone seen the Williams long runs vs Ferrari?

    1. Ferrari more than 1 sec faster than average Williams.

  18. Wow, an uncharacteristic mistake there from Maldonado.

    1. Yep ! Very strange indeed !

  19. Guys i missed im a huge Ham fan how was pace between Ros and Ham? Long runs etc…

    1. You don’t have to tell use that your a huge Hamilton fan, we have seen enough of that the past few months…

      1. lol so true though

  20. Sorry Keith but I think the headline should be: “Hamilton hits the top, Usual Friday for Lotus

    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      20th September 2014, 3:09

      No, Lotus was pretty good IMO

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