2013 Singapore GP - Marina Bay

[kooleracer]

Vettel has convinced me, he is the best driver of the field. What a class act, his pace compared to Webber was just incredible. More then 2sec a lap faster then Rosberg in the race. The car is good, but Vettel is like MSC and Webber is like Rubens. I don't think Alonso,Rai,Hamilton would beat Vettel if they had the same car. They way he opened the gap after the SC period was insane. As long Aero is the dominating factor in F1 Red Bull Racing will dominate the series. If RBR win again in 2014 F1 could be boring for the next coming years. The red bull was 2.0-2.5 sec a lap faster then the field. I can't see how McLaren,Mercedes,Ferrari or Lotus can close that gap in 2014. I hope for the sake of the sport, Paddy Lowe and Allison can make Merc and Ferrari competitive enough to challenge Red Bull in 2014. Because one again Red Bull has out developed every team during the season. But the thing i still can't wrap my head around is the difference between the race pace of the Red Bull and the rest of the field. Merc en Renault were really close during quali, but in the race both Rosberg and Grosjean couldn't match or come close to Vettel's race pace. If Merc can convert there quali pace in the race we could see a great 2014 season.

Please F1-God make F1 competitive again [-o< [-o< [-o< [-o<

[foxmulder_ms]

Is this a joke man... I cannot believe that penalty. I watch F1 because of moments like this, too, not only racing. This rules/ application of the rules are ruining my enjoyment of the sport. These people are jokes.

I cannot believe Hamilton's words about the "incident" too, what the hell...

Also, Raikkonnen drove brilliant again.

Last thing, 2 seconds of difference for Vettel was crazy.

[spin1/2]

^^ You may be exaggerating a bit there. After the SC, Vettel was pulling away at 2.5 s from Rosberg. But Rosberg was conserving his tyres then, and holding up the field. Before the SC, Vettel was 0.6 s faster than Rosberg, and 1s than Alonso. That would be a better indicator than the post SC period. Webber was not matching Vettel's times as he was always behind slower cars.

[spin1/2]

I don't think Alonso,Rai,Hamilton would be Vettel if they had the same car.

Hamilton in Hungary did a brilliant job, IMO the drive of the season. Do you remember Alonso at Spain / Malaysia ? Those were dominant too. So I wouldnt quite make that statement.
Vettel is one of the two best qualifiers on the grid, along with Hamilton.
Vettel is great during race starts, but you would agree Alonso has done a better job over the last 2 seasons. Vettel is aggressive over the first few laps, but we dont know how much of it is due to the Renault engine requiring lesser fuel at the start.
In terms of racecraft, he is right up there close to Alonso, with Hamilton & Rai close too.

[raymondu999]

^^ You may be exaggerating a bit there. After the SC, Vettel was pulling away at 2.5 s from Rosberg. But Rosberg was conserving his tyres then, and holding up the field. Before the SC, Vettel was 0.6 s faster than Rosberg, and 1s than Alonso. That would be a better indicator than the post SC period. Webber was not matching Vettel's times as he was always behind slower cars.

You realise that Rosberg was as close as 0.6s to Vettel's pace, BECAUSE he was 2.5s slower in the beginning? That's how tyre saving works - you sacrifice early pace for later pace. You cannot say "oh tyre saving isn't indicative of true pace" while saying "unleashing the saved tyres is indicative of true pace" - they feed off each other, and to disregard one you have to disregard the other, and vice versa.

Do you remember Alonso at Spain / Malaysia ? Those were dominant too.

Alonso had a very dominant crash in Malaysia? Spain was indeed dominant - but nowhere NEAR as dominant as Vettel.

Vettel is one of the two best qualifiers on the grid, along with Hamilton.

Agreed

Vettel is great during race starts

I don't think any driver is "great at starts" nowadays - other than Mark Webber everyone seems pretty Even Stevens in that regard.

You would agree Alonso has done a better job over the last 2 seasons.

Alonso I wouldn't say is good at starts - he's good at first laps. There's a difference. But yes, he's mighty on those first laps.

we dont know how much of it is due to the Renault engine requiring lesser fuel at the start.

If that were the case though - why aren't the Lotuses or Webber making the same use?

[Chuckjr]

Well, one good thing one could take from the race is now that the major seats (save Lotus) are decided for 2014, RB and Vet will win the championship, so it's every man for himself here on out. All that matters is thinking about the next race and to win it with no concern at all for the long haul.

Today maybe we saw it at Merc and it was good to see - I wish both equally well on every team. I hope these sorts of scenarios like we saw today with Ham/Ros become commonplace -- no more team orders. I like Massa's attitude in this sense, and I wish him well (tho I don't think it's gonna pan out for him at Lotus, unfortunately for him).

[raymondu999]

In hindsight and on balance of this race, Kimi I think would've won in Nurburgring had he stayed out and not gone for a pitstop 11 laps before the end

[Mandrake]

^^ You may be exaggerating a bit there. After the SC, Vettel was pulling away at 2.5 s from Rosberg. But Rosberg was conserving his tyres then, and holding up the field. Before the SC, Vettel was 0.6 s faster than Rosberg, and 1s than Alonso. That would be a better indicator than the post SC period. Webber was not matching Vettel's times as he was always behind slower cars.

AMuS reckons that due to rubber in NR's front wing, the actual gap between both would've been 1,5s only. But holy moly, that's a massive massive massive gap.

Webber never had that pace. After his last pit stop he could not even get away from the mercs in the moments he had clean air. Sure, he was on mediums, but still, he was 3 secs off seb's pace.

[Juzh]

^^ You may be exaggerating a bit there. After the SC, Vettel was pulling away at 2.5 s from Rosberg. But Rosberg was conserving his tyres then, and holding up the field. Before the SC, Vettel was 0.6 s faster than Rosberg, and 1s than Alonso. That would be a better indicator than the post SC period. Webber was not matching Vettel's times as he was always behind slower cars.

AMuS reckons that due to rubber in NR's front wing, the actual gap between both would've been 1,5s only. But holy moly, that's a massive massive massive gap.

Webber never had that pace. After his last pit stop he could not even get away from the mercs in the moments he had clean air. Sure, he was on mediums, but still, he was 3 secs off seb's pace.

To be honest, looking at the super slow-mo at 1080p his front wing looked just fine. You can literally see zero rubber on it. An you can otherwise see rubber quite easily even on normal speed.

[Kiril Varbanov]

I ran a new poll on the main page: do you think the season is over?
And, who was your driver of the day? I'm giving equal kudos for ALO and RAI.

[Juzh]

Whoever thinks alonso DOTD surely can’t be objective in the slightest manner. Yeah yeah, he had a good start down the outside, but that was it. He botched quali like usual and was out of position anyway. Other than that, he was unable to overtake a force india on fresh tires until diresta came into the pits and then just cruised to the end due to a bold SC strategy and no opposition from behind.

Driver of the day fight is between Vettel or raikkonen. Even still, Vettel takes this one easily after that kind of display.

[andartop]

Alonso and Kimi are probably my favourite F1 drivers at the moment but I can't see how anyone other than Vettel could be nominated for driver of the day, after such a great and mature defence in the 1st corner and opening up such a gap from the rest of the field not once but twice!!!

[beelsebob]

So, I finally got the highlights watched. All I can say is... WTF stewards.

Why on earth were Hamilton and Hulkenberg penalised for being pushed off the circuit?

I can half understand it in Hamilton's case, as he was trying to pass – he wasn't in front at the start of the move, unlike Hulkenberg. But Hamilton did then drop back behind and made a completely separate move. I don't understand why either were made to give the place back. What's the FIA trying to encourage, that you stay on track at all costs, and end up having collisions instead?

[SectorOne]

WDC´s gets proven time and time again to be the most worthless world title in all of sports. Today it´s 99.99999999999999% about the car.

Vettel is probably gonna have 7-8 titles and won´t be challenged by anyone in his whole career. Like Schumacher.
then if he comes back and gets whooped, people will blame the age factor.

The car at Singapore was so ridiculously superior it´s not even funny at this point.
Want to see exeptional talent? Look at Alonso...that´s pure driver performance.

[iotar__]

I can't help but laugh at the outrage about penalty for mutual backslapping duo from Red Bull and others. Warwick strikes again and look who's worried about penalties now, "wrap over the knuckles", really? Shameless Red Bull. Also Alonso was lucky his name isn't Maldonado because we would have had drive through race ago.

In a similar vain it's laughable that Hulkenberg is surprised about his Perez incident, and he didn't even get anything, they asked him kindly, much later to give position back (how thoughtful) instead of slapping him with a drive-through and he complains. Of course this situation was ridiculous but it's a direct consequence of equally ridiculous Hungary penalty, you can call me conspiracy theorist but I said after Spa, FIA knew it was the wrong decision under pressures and now they have to plough through with it. I don't recall Hulkenberg and others complaining in Hungary, if it's not about yourself it doesn't matter, not really as you see. I bet some not so objective journalists will say now this one wasn't a clear case. Oh look: “He did not gain an advantage, but merely avoided a collision by leaving the track” . Only thing left is some "high profile" driver doing it and another outrage and dissecting.

Yeah but Hulkenberg got punished or w/e for being physically pushed of the track since there was contact and he was easyily side by side so Perez should have given room under the given rules which would have resulted in Hulkenberg passing which he did anyways but instead got punished for.

It was marginal contact and it doesn't matter, mechanics are exactly the same, forced by negligible contract and low speed collision or by threat of high speed crash but Hulkenberg Singapore was much worse for three reasons:
1. He went off the track for much longer time, covered much bigger distance, and went off deeper, it was spli second in Hungary
2. Speed and possible consequences - car control at much higher speed and skills in avoiding a collision vs clumsy collision at low speed corner, both forced
3. Only first incident can be controversial, it takes a lot of dishonesty to have "no doubts" about Hungary and suddenly "develop" doubts when it's Hulk in Singapore - like Brundle, ugh, I watched it for scientific reasons and it made me sick.

Back then it was patronizing "rules are rules" you dumb audience from experts, because drivers they were selling weren't involved. A bit different here with favourite Hulkenberg, there are doubts, there are circumstances, "harsh" "he didn't gain advantage as such" 'he didn't gain because he was ahead" [yes, by staying in front and driving faster line], "no where else to go", "you could argue", really, could you? I though it was obvious, what happened to mindless "rules are rules" and you have to stay on the track with four wheels? Worthless pseudo journalism says it a it's "a matter of opinion now" when rules (wrong) were set clearly and he didn't even get a penalty. No honest bone & memory of a goldfish (same applies for drivers when they are not involved), and people treat their words as gospel.