Start, Singapore, 2018

Rate the race: 2018 Singapore Grand Prix

2018 Singapore Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Singapore Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (1%)
  • 9 (0%)
  • 8 (6%)
  • 7 (14%)
  • 6 (23%)
  • 5 (22%)
  • 4 (15%)
  • 3 (7%)
  • 2 (4%)
  • 1 (8%)

Total Voters: 295

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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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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102 comments on “Rate the race: 2018 Singapore Grand Prix”

    1. I agree, pretty boring. Also made worse by showing the “The Battle is On” graph so much. Does anyone else think this is unnecessary? my girlfriend said “that’s embarrasing”. Specially during such a boring and totally not “ON” battle on track. These cringeworthy graphs need to stop.

    2. I agree. Terrible combination of track and cars.

      I don’t justify Perez lunge against Sirotkin, but I can totally understand the frustration. The slow corners were impossibly narrow for two of these cars.

      1. @faulty I taught the move was possible had he kept his head cool.
        As for the graphs this is just liberty media “showing off”, american style, I really can’t see what positive additions they are bringing to the sport, who know maybe F1 will run on ovals.
        Anyway a solid 7 for me.

    3. Yes, gave it 5 as well, I gave 6 to monaco, this one would’ve been a 5,5 if I could, very boring even for a neutral f1 fan, very little action, monaco was probably more interesting because it was a “win as slow as you can” race for ricciardo, especially given his problems, which formed a train of cars and maybe someone had a chance, verstappen also was in recovery, here almost nothing happened at all.

  1. 8 a massive mental blow to petulant child of ferraris to finish more than a lap behind Hamilton in a race where they were expected to dominate. Also great race by alonso.

    1. Finished a lap behind? What race were you watching?

      1. Clearly not the same race I was watching if they voted it an 8.

        1. @j-rva I assume their logic is that any race that Hamilton wins cannot possibly score lower than an 8.

      2. Sorry pit stop window behind Hamilton. Mistyped in a hurry before the battery on my phone died.

        1. My 3 years old child is a better liar than you mate.

    2. I’d prefer you tell us the quality of the racing rather than whether your OMGFAVDRIVEREVER did well or not.
      This is the best feature of this site and it has saved me literal days of my life as to whether I watch the race or skip straight to the results article.

    3. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

      You can’t fix stupid.

      1. I don’t see any success criteria on this site dictating how I should decide on how good or otherwise I found the race, so I assume I get to use my own criteria, which is admittedly subjective – but that is true of everyone who votes. I personally consider a lot of factors, including how well my preferred driver and team did, and will make no apology for that. I have to say I do get a bit bored by some people on here who disrespect others simply because they have a different view to themselves.

        1. +1 lol you tell’em

        2. Every review is subjective but that doesn’t mean you can abandon objectivity.

      2. This was in response to a stupid comment, as I care more about the sport than any one driver or team. Glad you lept at the opportunity to take the moral high ground. I’m so proud of you!

  2. And we crown our new 2018 Formula One Driver’s World Champion!

    1. Tend to agree .. I was thinking that the championship was over when Vettel got held up (by Checo I think it was) after his pit stop and it was clear he wouldn’t undercut Hamilton

    2. Already did that after Monza, @mashiat.

      1. @coldfly So did I basically, but recovering 30 points from 7 races, and 40 points from 6 races is a completely different situation. There is a low, but alright chance on the first. There is basically none on the second without retirements.

    3. For me that was yesterday. Vettel’s umpteenth blunder meant the end of the battle for the championship.

  3. The podium the sport deserves, the three best teams each sending their best driver, but apart from that, dreary and predictable. Two exciting moments were pits and backmarkers. Terrible indictment again of the sport right now. 5/10

    1. @hahostolze,
      Well, I tend to disagree with the first sentence. It implies that having “inferior” drivers like Perez, Grosjean or Hulkenberg would be bad for the sport. IMO it would be great to see new/other drivers on the rostrum rather than seeing the same ones over and over again.

      1. @michal2009b for one, Perez proved today that he is bad for the sport. Secondly, I would rather see the best drivers in the sport competing than drivers that are worse simply for the sake of being new

        1. @hahostolze,
          everyone has bad races, Perez showed his worth many times. It’s your choice, but for me it is simply boring. Notwithstanding the fact there are very good drivers outside the top cars, but they sadly don’t even have a fighting chance of being there unless some armageddon happen.

  4. 3.One of the worst races of the season.

  5. Bottas finished 7 tenths down on Hamilton in qualifying and was nearly 50 seconds behind in the race where Hamilton was cruising and could have gone faster if necessary. How is he still in a Mercedes seat? Haas-level driver at best.

    1. Mercedes will be looking for a new talent when Hamilton retires in 2 or 3 years time. Maybe Max?

      1. Bottas is starting to get me baffled. If Mercedes wanted him to help them then he could have closed down Seb. This would have probably forced Seb to destroy his tyres. If I am Toto, I will not sign him for 2020 with this performance.

    2. I think that is a bit of an unfair assessment @mashiat … Bottas clearly got held up in the closing stages by the Hulk when tyres and aero were working against him. Did you notice how Charlie apologised to Lewis after the race about the (lack of) blue flags?

      1. It’s hard but not necessarily ‘unfair’, @potsie159.
        Bottas is probably at ‘Haas’ level as the ‘Sauber’ & ‘Renault’ level drivers behind him got within a second, closer than he was able to do versus Hulkenberg.

      2. @potsie159 He was barely held up. It wasn’t as if he was nose-to-tail with him. He was a solid 2-and-a-bit seconds behind. Even without Hulkenberg interrupting, he would comfortably have been beaten by Hamilton to such a degree that is embarrassing. Even McLaren dropped Vandoorne for similar levels of performances relative to a top-drawer teammate. A few decent races at first 4 rounds has basically saved Bottas from the same treatment.

    3. @mashiat It’s all gone a bit weird when, in fact, just before mid-point of the season it looked like he could finish it strongly. He started well and had bad luck. Then he had a couple of races where he was (difficult to believe this is Bottas) actually causing collisions! It looked like the bad luck had made him into (mildly) angry Bottas. Only his performance seems to have dipped. That could be relative though – Hamilton has clearly shifted up two gears and is simply in stupendous form right now. So maybe Bottas is actually just back at the same level. (Similar state of affairs at Red Bull with Verstappen demolishing Ricciardo over and above the latter’s own bad luck.)

  6. A rather straightforward race for the most part although not the worst of the season.

    1. If it was not for the two crashes during the race which livened things up, it was a boring procession which ended in much the same order as it started.

    2. It was……yeah. Not quite the worst of the season. I was hoping for rain to liven things up but yeah……

      1. Yeah, rain might have saved it. This was worse than Monaco – at least there you know it’s going to be a procession, while at Singapore you can hope that some tyres will go off near the end and newer shod cats can force their way past or at least make a race of it. No such excitement this year.
        For me, this anti-climax made it the worst race of the year.

  7. Can’t really give it more than a 6. It was a pretty uneventful race. Glad Lewis won but it was a snoozefest.

  8. 4, finished the way they started, racing, what racing ?

  9. Well, Ferrari has blown it. Again. For the second consecutive year. All hopes lost.

  10. Entertaining weekend all round… 7

    1. We knew that it wouldn’t be an overtaking-fest.
      And it was fun to see how some drivers struggled to overtake, and others showed their patience and skills.

      PS – I would have loved to see more of Alonso’s race. Maybe a boring race, but amazing to get that donkey to win F1B.

  11. A race of traffic.

  12. Really quite dull. The only memorable parts were Sirotkin driving a tractor, Perez in a bumper car and Ferrari’s clown-like strategy. Oh and the end of the championship fight.

    1. How did Perez get away with that move and merely a drive-through penalty?

    2. I hope penalty points have been added to Perez’s superlicense.
      Also lets not forget K-Mag getting the fastest lap of race at the end on fresh hypers(bragging rights).

    3. Montréalais (@)
      17th September 2018, 6:56

      @rocketpanda I got a giggle from that line. I got stuck behind a tractor hauling a manure spreader this afternoon and started looking for the ‘SIR’ flash on the side.

  13. I gave a 6. Pretty dull for most part, but made up for some decent midfield battles and the Perez drama with Ocon/Sirotkin.

    As far as the championship goes, I hope that Seb wins Russia/Japan and the next races after those or its over.

    Speaking of the race why did Ferrari pit Seb for Ultras? Did they not have any Softs? that was bizarre to me.

    1. Speaking of the race why did Ferrari pit Seb for Ultras? Did they not have any Softs? that was bizarre to me.

      Probably to give him the upper hand against HAM, and the chance to overtake him. Perez and Verstappen messed up their plans.

    2. @arobbo They probably thought it would increase his chances of undercutting Hamilton.

    3. Gave it a 6 for the exact same reasons. The race was quite processional after lap 1. I would have given the race 5 if it wasn’t for some interesting midfield battles and incidents.

      Regarding Ferrari’s decision to put Seb on ultras… I actually thought that was the only thing they could do to try and jump Lewis. Undercut Lewis, and put Sebastian on a quicker compound. Unfortunately, they executed it terribly. How on earth could they miss out on the fact that Seb was going to exit just behind Perez?!? Both Ferrari and Vettel had their shortcomings during the weekend, and effectively threw away a race win and potentially a championship because of it.

  14. 5. The race promised much but delivered little. Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen ran close in the beginning but then there was a disheartening sign with them quickly pulling away from each other. Nothing surprising though because when there is no SC mid-race then there is no excitement this year. Tyres are anti-racing as well, thermal degradation philosophy forces the tyres to be used very cautiously in order to not destroy them immediately. They are not wear-limited as in 2011-12 but you can actually do a whole race distance on them if driving to a certain pace as Vettel showed. Current type of racing, with those tyres, fourth-best team on the other planet and same three drivers winning for five years is not the type of F1 I felt in love with.

  15. At least Perez in Maldonado-mode provided some entertainment. A few inconsistant penaltys it seems. Magnussen cutting turn 1 to overtake without consequences. And only Grosjean getting one for blue flags.

  16. I lost the first 25 laps of the race, but i saw the start & Ferrari’s strategy…So, based in those, a 5 for me. No big battle in the top 6, the “best of the rest” was 50 seconds behind… Perez’s horrentous driving & Sirotkin’s defence gave a bit of excitement…

  17. 5/10…..Singapore is just a poor track for a F1 race…and thats what we got. Ferrari need a Ross Brawn urgently.. Perez was on a death wish with his team mate and also a Williams….(you would think he had just been told he was getting dropped not ocon )…..qualifying was the best ever…and that was the highlight….

  18. The fight at the front was over from the pit stops onward, aside from that little moment while Hamilton and Verstappen were lapping the backmarkers, so that wasn’t much fun. But the midfielders saved it as a spectacle, was great watching them at times even if they were only fighting for 15th.

    F1A gets a 5, F1B gets an 8, so rounded up to a 7.

    1. F1A can be further divided into F1A.1 and F1A.2 for the Top 3 teams 1st Drivers

  19. I saw plenty of racing. Just not up front. Boring race, though. It desperately needed another safety car.

  20. Lack of action from the top teams, though the midfield madness made it interesting. A six from me.

  21. 4/10
    Relatively boring…the top six qualifiers ended in the same position.
    Masterclass from Hamilton…clearly the best driver in the entire weekend.
    Red Bull did a good job to come back with a fast pitstop.
    Strategies at Ferrari probably their biggest weakness and driver deficiencies are on display at the sharp end of the championship.
    Sergio Perez claims he has a contract..well he better have one..clearly his spatial awareness needs a relook.
    Decent job from Alonso and Sainz.

  22. Great work from Verstappen and Hamilton, but the race really wasn’t very exciting after the 1st lap, especially after it turned out the possibly smart move from Vettel/Ferrari wasn’t going to play out well for them, and the ultra’s on Ricciardo also were not going to make a difference. Further, it was only from Sirotkin being a blocking move for others that we got a bit of excitement. Well done Alonso/McLaren, and Renault, Sauber also pretty well done.

    Stopping early was not the thing to do in this race, and many got that wrong (Haas, Racing Point, Sirotkin’s Williams was hopelessly slow). Of course, for the top runners, Ricciardo showed stopping late also didn’t make much effective difference either, so, yeah, 5/10 for the race, even though we probably saw quite a good effort from many drivers.

    1. Sirotkin was forced to pit because part of Ocon’s rim was lodged in his front wing. Victim of circumstance in the worst car on the grid.

  23. 3/10 from me (the scale goes from 1 to 10, not from 5 to 10), one point for each exciting lap. Singapore usually throws some kind of surprise, but nothing happened this year in the latter parts of the race, and as you can’t overtake here without a performance advantage of some four seconds, we were left watching a procession.

    1. you forgot 1 point from yesterday Quali!

  24. i really wish they would move away from these awful tyres & give them tyres that they can actually race on.

    they were 3-4 seconds a lap slower in the early stint managing tyres & we saw at the end when magnussen went something like 6 seconds faster than the leaders just how slow they were driving with the tyres.

    it’s pathetic & it’s embarrassing how abhorrent the high degredation tyres are.

    1. Actually, the only good races here were during the high-degradation era (2011-2014), when pitting for fresh tires would give a driver enough of a performance advantage to overtake. Sadly, nowadays drivers are saving their tires most of the time to get away with just one stop, which is the safest, if not fastest strategy.

    2. Quite right Lynda, but it has been an obvious failing since the day Bernie announced his brainwave, despite @f1infigures and his chess playing ilks’ enthusiasm for crunching the numbers on laps x speed deficit x duration between pitstops, seems that everybody has become so invested in the lunacy that they can’t find a way to get back to plain and simple racing, alternately they must all be afraid to make a decision that might initially be controversial. I’ve pretty much given up on F1, MotoGP is where the real racing is at.

      1. @hohum Given how difficult it is to overtake, different strategies are the only way to create interesting battles between evenly-matched cars. Give them durable tires and the race will be a very long procession.

        1. @f1infigures, you are confusing cause and effect, it is difficult for evenly matched cars to make a pass as you state, but it is not difficult in evenly matched cars to try to pass at every corner and hope the other driver will make an error that will make passing possible, just watch MotoGP to see what’s possible. However Hi-deg tyres penalise the following driver by their very hi-deg design making it pointless for a following driver to make repeated attempts to pass.

          1. @hohum The big difference between MotoGP and F1 is the aero-dependency. In MotoGP there is a lot of drafting, which leads to numerous position changes, whereas in F1 the cars cannot follow each other closely, which leads to static and uneventful races. I agree that tire-saving can be frustrating to watch, but I don’t know if more durable tires will make the race more eventful. If you cannot even follow another car, then you certainly cannot overtake it.

          2. @f1infigures, Only partially correct, that great big hole in the air created behind F1 cars provides a terrific tow for a following car, but yes, the reduced effectiveness of the following cars aero widgets does cause a lack of braking and cornering grip, a good driver can adjust his driving style to minimise these losses but it will be hard on the tyres and with high-deg tyres it is futile to try.

  25. Boring race. 3/10

    Mercedes have clearly found some new tricks. Hopefully it’s all legal but it’s always strange when a team all of a sudden finds this speed on a circuit that wasn’t supposed to suit them.

    1. Ferrari is better, don’t you know yet…. although the fastest Ferrari finished more than a pit-stop time behind! Of course, VET did not push, but the gap would have been at least 10sec without doubt.

      1. hmm, I think I’ve just worked out that anon is actually @mg1982

        So you’re moaning about Vettel being a pit stop behind but then explain why this is complete nonesense in your next sentence… Wow, well I can’t disagree with such professional logic there…

        Vettel was completely gone by the end due to his tyres. Had he been on the same tyres and managed to keep ahead of Verstappen he’d have easily had the pace to win this one.

        Just look at how hard overtakes were today. Perez on fresh tyres couldn’t get past a car which was nearly 2 seconds slower yesterday on completely burnt out tyres ! yet Vettel was able to fly past Verstappen.. ” not the best car” Yeah right.

        1. So, you got wrong not only what’s going on with F1, but with the members too. No, I’m not an ANON too, I’m not that big fan to create multiple accounts to present my ideas. Be careful, there’re multiple ANONs anyway!

          Yeah, might have kinda contradicted myself, but that proves that I, at least, try to be impartial, then wanted to underline that the bigger the gap, the bigger the real gap is too. So, for that 40sec gap I’d say at least 15sec were real. HAM’s fastest lap time compared to VET’s is some proof too that Mercedes was faster no matter what tyre was used. Even now, after the race, so still say Ferrari had the better, real chances to win etc…. yet they downplayed Mercedes at Spa altough the gap was like 5sec for most part of the race.

          You’re contradicting yourself too. You say it was hard to overtake (which it was indeed), yet you say VET had the win in the bag if it wasn’t for VER. VET couldn’t do anything against VER although he had faster tyres, yet you’re sure regarding the success of an overtaking maneouver against HAM. Come on, VET couldn’t even try something against HAM in the 1st stint…..

  26. Averaging around a 5 in the votes.. seems about right.

  27. 6. The continuous thread of mild excitement didn’t quite materialize in the top 10, and some of the happenings in the lower ranks were more folly than racing. Nevertheless, not really a lost weekend, this one.

  28. Been a while since I commented. The Singapore GP is one of the Grands Prix I look forward to the most, but the race was thoroughly disappointing, like most races have been this year really. The combination of high-deg tyres and high downforce makes overtaking.. not impossible, but more undesirable. The effort to get into a position to even attempt an overtake is so high that teams and drivers rather prefer not to take the risk. It’s not a new problem, but it’s just so frustrating that instead of it getting better it’s just getting worse and worse every year.

    The most frustrating part is the huge gap between the top 3 teams and the rest of the field. At least a couple years ago we could pretend like a smaller team was going to finish on the podium or even win a race, I simply don’t see it happening today. Unless the playing field in terms of budgets gets leveled, we will have to settle for at most 2 teams fighting for a win.

    In fairness, the 2018 season isn’t quite as atrocious as for instance the 2013 season, but the feeling of “things are never going to change” is growing stronger and stronger on me. At least the 2021 regulations are supposed to tackle the ‘dirty air’ problem.. to some extent, but levelling the playing field or producing proper racing tyres are still not being recognised as fundamental issues. And don’t get me started on DRS…

  29. 1 — only because this site doesn’t allow a zero. Can anyone tell me when the first six on the grid finished in the same order? As is often the case, good job by Alonso. Tyres didn’t seem to make a difference on a track where apparently aero and dirty air start working at 5 seconds and totally prevent any meaningful overtake for drivers maybe two to three seconds faster.

  30. 6.

    Champ is over.

    Glad that Perez took it where it hurt him most. He impeded VET on purpose just to help HAM. Not nice at all, and FI dared to do it at Spa too. They told us at Monaco they don’t mess with the BIG 3 because they have a different race and have to take care of their tyres, pace… bla bla bla. Suddenly they discovered they’re indeed in the same race with the BIG 3 and that they can race them too! Karma…

    RAI, again, nothing special and of no help to VET. Another race where he fails to better himself, for his own gain, so this no.2 myth is fading away a lot faster than an F1 car.

    Big thumbs down for Sky, especially Brundle. So disappointed. Must be that Sky filled nicely his bank accounts to make certain.. “comments”. Example: HAM was like 13sec behind RAI and he already started to say that Ferrari is using RAI to slow down HAM… the way Mercedes did with BOT multiple times already… although there was no real proof something like that might actually happen. Given RAI’s tyres and his pace difference to HAM, actually it was quite obvious something like that is almost impossible to happen. It didn’t, RAI stopped few laps later. When somebody experienced, from the center of the “problem” makes such bad predictions compared to armchair experts… makes one wonder a lot.

    Mercedes without doubt have the better car now. HAM was playing with the pace all race long. He was on preservation mode all race long, he did it in previous races too. Because of possible reliability issues, of course. As soon as VET pitted and had to avoid a possible undercut, he bettered the fastest lap by 2sec! Mercedes are not using their full race pace, no doubt now. They’re just using a little bit more pace than competition in order to secure the wins, reliability is great and also makes it heroic for them.

    Ferrari’s race pace proved they’re the 3rd best car this race and that VET was bluffing when he said he the car to take the pole position. Given the out lap remarks in Q3 (first time I hear somebody blaming the out lap “preparation” for not taking the PP… and a PP lost by +0.6sec!!), I’m thinking that he’s thinking seriously that the champ is lost and trying to blame the team too for losing it, at least make it 50-50. If I’m right, this marriage is gonna end up in tears in 2019, Ferrari showing him the door.

    1. Love how much effort people put into talking down Hamilton. Must be really tiring being so biased,

      1. Thanks a lot, man. Really appreciate your support. =)))))

  31. The most boring Singapore GP for the past 10 years.
    No more than 3 for me, honestly.

    Anyway I’ll vote Alonso for DOTD.
    McLaren supposedly the worst car of late.

  32. But the Best Qualifying for Singapore GP.
    Thanks to Lewis Hamilton.

  33. If I could give this a zero I would.

    The CGI ads are really obnoxious too.
    “The battle is on”? What battle? The battle to try not to fall asleep?

  34. It was a pretty boring race but including Saturday I’d give it a 7.

    Max did a massive job in a car that wanted to shut down behind the safety car and in the pit lane. Lewis never was tested until the Sirotkin train backed him into Max.

    What was Ferrari doing with Vettel? Unbelievable!!

    And Perez….. he opened up his steering wheel against his teammate and steered into Sirotkin on a straight. He got away to easy imho

    The WDC looks sealed now, although Vettel still has it all in his own hands

    1. The WDC looks sealed now, although Vettel still has it all in his own hands

      Like HAM had it in his own hands in 2007, 2009-2013, 2016… yet he failed like a tier2 driver?!

      1. 2007 – beat a 2 time world champion in his Rookie year, not tier 2
        2009 – terrible McLaren that he still dragged to pole and win,not tier 2
        2012 – drove faultlessly, would have won that championship without mechanical issues and mistakes by the team. Not tier 2
        2013 – car was not WC material and RBR was OP, not tier 2
        2016 – outdrove Rosberg over the season, would have won the championship with a margin of probably 2 race wins if not for losing around 60 points to reliability issues. Not tier 2

        Once again another post of nonsense from you MG, I do wish you’d post some sense now and again.

        1. 2007 is a stretch. First, he didn’t beat Alonso – they tied and only because ALO helped him with setup data the first half of the season.

          Hamilton always had a good if not great car. He’s been very fortunate in that regard.

          1. 2007 is a stretch. First, he didn’t beat Alonso

            Hamilton came second, Alonso came third, he beat him. They may have had the same points but Hamilton had the better results, that is why he got second place.

  35. I vote a 7. Just because everything that happened behind Ric.

  36. I fell asleep

  37. Apart from a bit of intrigue over how the pit stops would play out when the pack was still bunched up the race was utterly boring, hopefully the car changes will help next years race.

  38. 2. Not worth watching.

  39. On the whole, pretty meh. Kudos to Sirotkin though for single-handedly providing all the entertainment.

  40. Rubens Cheriballo
    16th September 2018, 21:58

    This track shouldn’t be in the calendar.

  41. The most boring race I have seen in 25 years of watching F1. The street circuits may be fun for the drivers but for spectators not so much.

  42. 0… my love for F1 is dying

  43. Alexandre Costa
    18th September 2018, 3:12

    4.
    The fact that it is the longest race of the year just make it worse. Subtract 10 laps and at least it could match its boringness with Monaco.

  44. I only gave the race a 4.25, it was pretty dull, almost all the action was when Perez was hitting other cars.

    It was another weekend where before anyone arrived at the circuit it looked to be a case of damage limitation for Mercedes and Hamilton in the title race, that still seemed to be the case after practice going into qualifying but then Hamilton put in that mega lap Q3 to claim pole, it seemed to come out of nowhere and you could tell by Hamilton’s reaction afterwards that he was also a bit in disbelief about what he had just achieved.

    After Q2 I thought it would be Vettel on pole and that Hamilton may manage to get on the second row, but qualifying ended with Hamilton on pole and Vettel on the second row.

    With Verstappen starting in second I wondered what he would do as he did not have to worry about the championship and would prioritise a win above everything else, whereas both Hamilton and Vettel probably would back out of any unnecessary risks considering they were both involved in a title fight.

    But there was no fireworks at the front at the start and it was in fact Vettel who managed to get past Verstappen into second.

    After Hamilton kept the lead at both the start and restart it seemed a straightforward victory for him, he controlled the pace early on to look after his tyres and when Vettel tried pitting early to get past him Hamilton had the speed in hand to push on before his stop and come out with a bigger gap to Vettel and Ferrari pitting Vettel early backfired as they actually lost out to Verstappen who stayed out later.

    The only moment of worry for Hamilton came when he was coming up to lap Grosjean who was involved in his own fight with Sirotkin and just ignored the blue flags, this allowed Verstappen to close right up on Hamilton as for a few moments Hamilton wasn’t sure where to safely put his car on the track with how Grosjean was battling Sirotkin. Once the leaders were clear of that Hamilton quickly re-established a comfortable lead and was not troubled again.

    As I mentioned earlier the most memorable events in the race were the two incidents involving Perez, you could put down the collision with Ocon down to a typical first lap coming together but I think he could have down better and avoided it, but I don’t think he had any legitimate excuse for when he hit Sirotkin.

    It seemed like he had got frustrated by not being able to get past the Williams for so long even though he was significantly faster and that may meant he was worked up which clouded his judgement.

    For some reason I thought that all cars now had a TV camera fitted somewhere for each race, but as we never saw any footage from Perez’s car considering how his race went that must not be the case. If they had had a camera in the standard T-cam position above the roll hoop facing forward it would have given us a good view of his actions in each incident.

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