Singapore GP Practices and Qualifying like Never Before

Personal commentary. (Singapore GP 2014 - FP1, FP2, FP3, Qualifying)

 We head back to Asia, the first being tropical Singapore. Chances are, sweating is an instantaneous effect. I can assure you that staying out in the open for a few minutes will be enough to drive you mad. With a humidity that can go up to 95%, your body will turn into a running tap. Sweat clings to you like a leech. Trust me on this, I have lived there for the past seven years of my life. The humidity is a disease.

There have been so many tweets from teams posting pictures of fans. By fans, I mean those machines with blades, not people. They came up with a new fashion statement for the people of Singapore. Unfortunately for them, the humidity in Singapore is ever persistent. 

In spite of the weather, my home race has been a gem to most of the F1 fans. Singapore is surely the Monaco of the East. It has every ingredient to turn even a stone into gold. Everything about the city and the race is just spectacular. Do I really need to tell you the atmosphere? Well, it was raining hard and there were still 30 000 fans grooving to the music of Robbie Williams. Not to forget, the marshals deserve the praise for doing their job while the rain was pouring down on them. 

The Ferrari drivers were on fire in the four sessions, literally (Kimi Raikkonen) and metaphorically (overall). It has been a long time since we see both of them in the top ten slot in all sessions. Fernando Alonso was outstanding and consistent in all the sessions. He has an admirable record in the Singapore GP. He had the honour of winning the very first Singapore GP and ever since then, he has never failed to be on podium. Raikkonen too is a renowned name in the records. He is (still is) the fastest man, holding a lap record of 1:45.599. It took Raikkonen a while before he got attuned to the car on the track this week. That being said, the team aced it this week. I wish the team all the best in keeping up this way. They better not ruin Raikkonen's race like in Q3. Give the man's car more power! They better not ruin Alonso's race too with a car fault or whatsoever... P.S. Anyone saw Raikkonen's post qualifying interview? He was wearing shades... AT NIGHT! :p 

Williams was no where to be seen in the top ten until FP3, Felipe Massa being the one who did a better job than his teammate Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel had found the willpower to extract the maximum capability of his car even when his car was not giving him a smooth practice. 

Qualifying turned out to be an unprecedented session. There were several occasions when we got to see drivers (who are not from the top teams) topping the lap time for a considerable amount of time. Esteban Gutierrez was one of them. The session went on that way right to the end. The whole session was tense. The new team radio regulation made the matter worse. It was too quiet. It just felt so awkward to watch a race, with such low engine sounds and the lack of team radio conversations. It seemed like the commentators were the only ones producing noise loud enough to fill the void. Jenson Button was once again out of Q3. Sadly, this isn't his first time. I am afraid he will be replaced if this goes on for another qualifying session. I know I did mention previously that McLaren will benefit mostly from Button's experience but F1 has become rather objectionable these days. Teams are more into 1. money and 2. drivers who can win points and championships. McLaren's last drivers' championship was 2008 and its constructors' was ten years before that. Not winning for that long feels like being lost in the sea without anything. Well, you get the point. At the end of the night, it was still the usual three suspects: Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo. They were VERY CLOSE. If there was a choice, I would pick the result from Q1. That was a good mix of drivers to have in the start of tomorrow's race. 

There were plentiful of spins and near crashes this week, it being a night race and street circuit and all. Then, there was that torrential rain that happened right after qualifying, treating the drivers and teams for a well deserved shower. It might be a street circuit but I think it will be an exciting race. Qualifying has already proved us so. Bring out the safety cars (indeed a good friend of Singapore GP) and rain! Keep calm and DAMN IT!!! ;) 

Singapore GP Qualifying: 

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:46.921 1:46.287 1:45.681 17
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:47.244 1:45.825 1:45.688 19
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:47.488 1:46.493 1:45.854 12
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:47.476 1:46.586 1:45.902 15
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:46.889 1:46.328 1:45.907 16
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:47.615 1:46.472 1:46.000 20
7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.685 1:46.359 1:46.170 14
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:47.196 1:46.622 1:46.187 18
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:47.976 1:46.700 1:46.250 18
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:47.656 1:46.926 1:47.362 21
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:47.161 1:46.943 12
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:47.407 1:46.989 14
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:47.370 1:47.308 13
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:47.970 1:47.333 9
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:48.143 1:47.575 13
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:47.862 1:47.812 14
17 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:48.324 6
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:49.063 8
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:49.440 7
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:50.405 8
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:50.473 7
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:52.287 5