2008 Singapore GP.

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Humourous to hear Allen almost call Nakajima by his fathers name (or was it Nakano he almost called him? can't remember).

If that race wasn't an example of why the BBC shouldn't hire James Allen next year, I don't know what is.

Great win for Alonso, fully deserved, and an excellent 9 points for Williams too. Vettel overtakes Trulli for 8th in the championship as well! Another great drive by Glock.
A far better race than Valencia, plenty of overtaking going on (thank you Trulli!) and clearly challenging the drivers for once.


Haha yeah I think he was about to say Shinji Nakano, Nakajima's father was Satoru I think. I was also a little surprised when driver of the day went to Rosberg instead of Alonso. Both were excellent, but I felt Alonso edged it.

My hat off to Glock as well. How's Webber's luck eh?

All the best
Maz
 
This just underlines the problem with the FIA's rules - there is no consistency in them, they need to hire some more permenent race stewards who go to all of the races to help with this.

I suggest Niki Lauda, Jacky Stewart and Murray Walker as permenent stewards 👍
 
Interesting piece of trivia:
This season has the most different winning teams since 2003, with 5 this season (Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso and Renault) and 5 in 2003 (Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Jordan, Renault)....with Renault being the 5th both times.
 
So about the Massa leaving pit incident:

Why does he get a drive-through here, while he only got a fine at Valencia?

Was it because he won in Valencia, but was dead last here and couldn't win anymore anyway?
Or was it because they don't know the 'don't give penalties to Ferrari'-rule in Singapore?:lol:

Well maybe because he had the fuel rig attach to his car while doing so? ;)
Anyways, that should be the end of the FIA being known as Ferrari International Assistance or whatever bullcrap you guys call it. I'm getting sick of hearing the FIA being bias to other teams besides Ferrari. :grumpy:
 
I have to say, I have mixed emotions. I'm no fan of the stop-go penalty for coming into pit simply because your strategy didn't factor in a safety car incident. But on the other hand, the best man won; I'm certaily not Alonso's biggest fan, but he'd been quickest all weekend and thoroughly deserved it. And if I were Ferrari, I'd be asking serious questions about my refulling rig and that bloody green light.

Also, I felt like throwing things at the screen because of the commentary; in particular the commentators implying that David Coulthard was the only thing that kept Hamilton from winning, as they were basically implying Alonso had no merit as a driver. Likewise Hamilton's pass on Coulthard down at turn seven: while that section of track was the most popular for passing, it's pretty violent. Hamilton's pass was downright dangerous - again - he was too close to Coulthard, and for a moment there I thought they were going to take each other out. I wouldn't have felt too sorry if they did either; if Hamilton had made his move fetmoseconds later, they both would have tasted the barriers. He's simply too aggressive.
 
Likewise Hamilton's pass on Coulthard down at turn seven: while that section of track was the most popular for passing, it's pretty violent. Hamilton's pass was downright dangerous - again - he was too close to Coulthard, and for a moment there I thought they were going to take each other out. I wouldn't have felt too sorry if they did either; if Hamilton had made his move fetmoseconds later, they both would have tasted the barriers. He's simply too aggressive.
There was nothing wrong with that pass. It wasn't as good as Allen made out, but it was a good, clean pass. DC closed the door, but still gave Hamilton room.
 
I haven’t found anything wrong in Hamilton’s driving today. His pass was decided, clean and unlike others in Italy not subject to discussion in my opinion.

Anyway, the man of the day is - no doubt about it - impressive Fernando Alonso.

Little catch from his interview “still 3 races to go, many more next year, we’ll keep on fighting...”
 
Well. For once I'm gonna praise Piquet, he made this race.

Full congratulations to the podium all 3 of them deserved the win today, Alonso on basis of keeping his foot in despite the horror of Qualifying. Nico for showing that when Williams do have a good car, he can get up with the best of them and Lewis for making a spirited comeback through the field.. Again.

Ferrari are gonna run out of refuellers soon, it's getting quite rediculous now. Red Bull also had a mechanic suffer a twisted ankle during DC's final stop, I mean, we went what, a good two maybe even three years without a hugely serious pit lane incident but then with Albers last year and Ferrari this year, it seems to all be going to pot again..

As for the night race, I think it was alarming how the field spread so fast, I think after 10 laps Fisichella was over a minute behind Massa, if it wasn't for the SC, we were gonna be in for an extremely long, tiresome race. The atmosphere seemed fantastic though.

On a final note, when the top 3 were going through the corridor lined by the grid girls, I almost laughed when Alonso's cheers was pretty much drowned out by Hamilton's. I'm sure it made James Allen proud.
 
Oh yeah, I never seen anyone commenting about how long the race was. (or the fact that I had missed it :ouch:) The race did really last nearly 2 hours, (1h 57m 16.304s to be exact) unlike most European races which last about 1 hour 30 minutes+. I don't know if it was the mistakes of the organisers or that it was a night race, but that seemed really long for a race. 61 laps with average lap times of 1 minute 45 seconds, it just seems really odd.... :odd:
 
Well, that was with 2 SC periods remember. The rules are aslong as it's under 2 hours then the race will be completed.
 
Bee: the field spread because of Trulli's cargo tanker-style fuel strategy, not anything to do with the night or the lights or the track.

I do think they got rather lucky with a) Trulli and b) the safety cars, though. Without them it would have been a processional race. There's really exactly one overtaking spot (turn 7), and it's marginal (narrow track, short straight, not much grip up the inside).

If they could make that straight a bit longer and widen the track somewhat it'd turn it into a much more legitimate overtaking spot and that'd help.

Of course, given that this is a street circuit in Singapore, doing that would probably cost several billion dollars =)
 
Bee: the field spread because of Trulli's cargo tanker-style fuel strategy, not anything to do with the night or the lights or the track.

True but with only one proper turn to pass in, it was quite alarming how long the cars were stuck behind him. I don't think you can really blame dirty air either, the cars were all within a couple of tenths of eachother.

I had no problem with the lights or that it was at night time, that just added to the spectacle.
 
Bee: the field spread because of Trulli's cargo tanker-style fuel strategy, not anything to do with the night or the lights or the track.

I do think they got rather lucky with a) Trulli and b) the safety cars, though. Without them it would have been a processional race. There's really exactly one overtaking spot (turn 7), and it's marginal (narrow track, short straight, not much grip up the inside).

If they could make that straight a bit longer and widen the track somewhat it'd turn it into a much more legitimate overtaking spot and that'd help.

Of course, given that this is a street circuit in Singapore, doing that would probably cost several billion dollars =)

Yeah, exactly, Trulli was a god send in this race, lol. And Fisichella too! It kept the field super close behind and forced a few overtakes. Although, most of the overtaking was done on Trulli more than anyone else.
Trulli must really hate this track.

Bee
True but with only one proper turn to pass in, it was quite alarming how long the cars were stuck behind him. I don't think you can really blame dirty air either, the cars were all within a couple of tenths of eachother.

I had no problem with the lights or that it was at night time, that just added to the spectacle.

Perhaps you under-estimate Trulli's racing ability? :) I think a large reason they couldn't get past is because of Trulli's driving as well as the track.
 
I don't know if it was the mistakes of the organisers or that it was a night race, but that seemed really long for a race. 61 laps with average lap times of 1 minute 45 seconds, it just seems really odd.... :odd:
F1 races usually are just above 300 km long. This one was about 309 km, so it was well within the target area. It just took so long because of the low average speed (and those 2 SC periods).
 
Perhaps you under-estimate Trulli's racing ability? :) I think a large reason they couldn't get past is because of Trulli's driving as well as the track.

Which is why they left him for dead at around 2 seconds a lap once they were past? :lol: Great qualifying driver, bit suspect in races.
 
bee: he was slow due to the fuel load (he actually drove some reasonably fast laps at the very end of his first stint). Ardius' point is that he's good at preventing people from passing him even when he's substantially slower than they are, which is a definite skill (if a rather annoying one :>).
 
Bee
Which is why they left him for dead at around 2 seconds a lap once they were past? :lol: Great qualifying driver, bit suspect in races.

No, thats not what I meant, he defended well, hence why they weren't getting past, except at the one place where he couldn't possibly - on the straight, with a heavy fuelled car and only allowed one block.
Trulli has shown himself in races before, he's had some good finishes, he just doesn't do a lot of aggressive moves that would get him in better positions. He's a good reliable points scorer though.

According to Barrichello, Rubens may have been onto a good finish too, because he pitted just before the 1st safety car after another good Honda call, but his engine just cut out (but the car did have fuel, so not a fuel rig problem). Would have been interesting if Rubens had been able to hang onto a podium again.

On another note...whats happening with Kovalainen? Beaten by Button in a Honda? Shameful.
 
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Roo
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"Look ma, no traction control!"
+1 for good parody motivational poster material.:sly:👍

"Fly Kingfisher."
+1 for good parody advertising material.:D:tup:

Maybe I should show this to RACECAR.:sly:

Good race quite enjoyable.
iagree.gif
 
Bee
Which is why they left him for dead at around 2 seconds a lap once they were past? :lol: Great qualifying driver, bit suspect in races.

This is the only race this season I can recall other drivers being faster than him by 2 seconds a lap. Seriously, don't write the guy off just because his car was incredibly heavy, and he hated the track. In the very few last laps before he retired, he was on Vettel's pace, so don't bash good ol' Trulli ;) If his car didn't fail him today, probably most of us would praise him right now for that P5 he would've scored...

After all, without Trulli, Toyota would never have been in the position they are in right now. No offense there Bee, but Trulli is still a whole lot better than a bunch of other drivers out there. Most of the others would never hae been able to defend that P9 for that long like Tulli did, in my opinion his defence was absolutely marvelous...
 
oh, forgot to mention - anyone else still bummed they moved the Japanese GP to Fuji? Suzukua = probably the best modern track period, Fuji = meh. Still, it'll be fun if it rains.
 
oh, forgot to mention - anyone else still bummed they moved the Japanese GP to Fuji? Suzukua = probably the best modern track period, Fuji = meh. Still, it'll be fun if it rains.

Its back at Suzuka next year, they're alternating from now on.
 

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