Martin Brundle reflects on a a roller-coaster race under the lights, the impact of the Safety Car, and where the result leaves the title race...
Thursday 25 September 2014 16:29, UK
An incident in midfield between Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez had unintended consequences which thankfully brought the Singapore Grand Prix alive.
Perez was possibly inadvisably moving down the outside of an apparently unaware Sutil into a 90-degree right-hander when the Sauber driver moved over on the Force India creating a wedge up against the wall, and ensuring a broken front-wing. On the next straight the front-wing shattered like glass into a thousand pieces as it tucked under the chassis at speed. The inevitable Safety Car for debris would spice things up nicely.
Some brushes or blowers would be helpful in the future as the Safety Car procedure, especially while letting the lapped cars through to play unnecessary catch up meaning it was out for a full seven laps, was way too long.
Until then it was a solo effort at the front from Lewis Hamilton measuring himself calmly against a returning-to-form Sebastian Vettel in second position, a position he effectively seized at the first corner as he had a clear view from his third place on the grid due to Nico Rosberg not taking the start - albeit not before an uncharacteristically wild Fernando Alonso had to concede second place after a spirited run through the run-off area on the outside of the first two corners at unabated speed. Many feel he should have yielded to Daniel Ricciardo too but that's a totally subjective call of which there is no accurately measurable answer of where they would have been in terms of track position otherwise. On balance, I personally would have ruled that he should have yielded to both Red Bulls, returning back to his starting position.
Otherwise the first hour of the race was a bit sleepy but the Safety Car on lap 30 out of an eventual two hour timed-out 60 laps changed all that. Hamilton was on the optimum three-stop strategy and he had yet to run the 'prime' tyre as it's called within the teams. Others would now swap onto a two-stopper and try to stretch the primes to the end. Felipe Massa would end up nursing his set a full 38 laps, including some Safety Car time. With some skilful driving, albeit it being all about finesse rather than brute speed, many would somehow make it home such as the two Red Bulls, both Ferraris and Massa's Williams.
Others simply ran out of grip and we had some great action as the likes of Jean Eric Vergne, despite two five-second penalties, heroically made their way through the pack of cars which appeared to be on ball bearings rather than Tarmac. A sweet irony was that Perez, forced out of strategy by the front-wing change, was able to steam back through. Having to manage a power steering issue, Valtteri Bottas couldn’t manage his tyres so well and he dropped from sixth to 11th in the final few corners as he looked like he was now actually driving on ice in the sweaty night air.
But the real story was Hamilton, who had been forced to do qualifying speeds on his supersoft 'option' tyres for a total of 26 laps to build a gap at the front to make a third stop and cover off the two stoppers. It was an electric pace initially but eventually those tyres faded and he couldn't quite clear Vettel who was having his best race of the year. Hamilton's new tyres were sure to see him retake the lead but his choice of overtaking place on the grubby inside line of the Turn Six sweeping right hander seemed to bemuse him as much as it did Vettel, who took a sensible pill and gave him space.
Lewis rightly said he could have chosen a better place but he was clearly so focussed on maximising Rosberg's pain and points loss that he was a touch too eager. For only the second time this year despite having won seven races he would take the championship points lead.
I said in commentary that it was a great shame that Rosberg had to retire from an already lowly position with terminal electrical gremlins, and it was. I also said that Hamilton would feel the same way as he would have preferred a true fight, but I was wrong. On Sky F1 after the race his position seemed to be along the lines that it was more even now in the reliability stakes. Mercedes are lucky that they have no close rivals otherwise their technical woes would be costing them a championship or two.
Post the Spa race I continue to perceive that Nico Rosberg is somewhat crestfallen, hit hard by the criticism and booing and his errors in Monza. He looks downbeat and he's been on a charm offensive to an extent. It seems to me that he can't absorb and discard the negativity in the same way that his fellow countrymen Michael Schumacher and Vettel did.
As Hamilton said pre race, 'if Nico fails today he's still in the championship, if I fail I'm probably not'. Rosberg is still very much in the hunt and has the speed, but Hamilton smells another championship now and he's on a roll to say the least. I just hope it's not all decided by something like a steering column wiring loom or double points in Abu Dhabi.
MB
