Formula One Highlights: Singapore Grand Prix, Q1 (Part 1)
Missed the Race Weekend? Don’t worry; you’re just in time for the blow by blow feature of the first qualifying session from the Singapore Grand Prix! With just 24 points (or a mere race win) separating the top five drivers, every weekend with each practice
session, qualifying is crucial for the contenders.
In the practice sessions, Vettel seemed to be the one to beat, posting the fastest time by over half a second in practice 2 and 3. His Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was a touch patchy, as he recorded more variable times, coming in at 2nd and 6th fastest.
However, it wasn’t a long shot to assume that the Red Bulls had a clear advantage after a strong practice session. Amongst the other contenders, Alonso seemed to have a slight edge over the McLarens, but it would be naïve to comment further till the end of
the race weekend. A couple of the practice sessions were held under damp and wet conditions, so the weather was assumed to be a factor the weekend. However, with all said and done, the forecast for qualifying was dry.
Brace yourself for the one and only ‘night session’ as the highlights for Q1 kickoff!
Minute 1 as the session jump started, over half the grid lined up to get a first bite of the Marina Bay racing circuit.
Despite a few damp patches on track, the drivers still opted for dry tyres; apparently looking for speed over reliability for the entire 5.073 km. Since it was a collective gamble, perhaps the risk would be shared equally, thereby nullifying it altogether.
The third minute and none of the drivers had set benchmark lap times, obviously still on their warm up laps.
The early flying laps featured Liuzzi for Force India, Timo Glock for Virgin Racing and Petrov for Renault effectively in the top 3.
That was until the McLaren’s displayed a realistic measure of their raw speed, going fastest. Interestingly, Jenson Button was able to go faster than Lewis Hamilton but it would be rather short sighted to presume that would be the case the entire length
of qualifying!
Vettel joined the party, splitting the two McLarens as he went 2nd fastest. Michael Schumacher took 3rd. The German earlier commented that it was his understanding that the Mercedes is strong in damp conditions – The question is; does
the lack of damp conditions throughout the season excuse the veteran for sheer mediocrity on his comeback season?
Six minutes into the first qualifying session and Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil were yet to feature on track – Biding their time, waiting for a clear piece of road perhaps.
A moment later, Fernando Alonso went fastest! The Spaniard was first to enter the 1:47 min bracket. Alguersuari succeeded him, beating Vettel’s second fastest lap time – A measure of the track drying up as a Toro Rosso was clearly able to take advantage
and went faster than a Red Bull.
Mark Webber entered the scene and took third fastest. Kubica and Sutil were the only drivers yet to start off their on track exploits. The Williams’ drivers were also expected to start their respective flying laps.
Tenth minute of Qualifying saw drama for Ferrari! What appeared to be a minor Yellow Flag for Massa’s rather unplanned halt on track was changed to a Red Flag! This signalled a premature goodbye from Qualifying for the Brazilian who would effectively start
from the end of the grid, as he was yet to post a lap time till then – All the drivers headed back to the pits as Massa’s car was removed by a crane – A blow for Ferrari and a dent to their constructors’ ambitions.
Q1 resumed and the two Williams’ and Kubica’s Renault were the only cars left to set a time. Since all three were expected to post respectable times, it was still hard to predict which drivers were in danger of not making it to Q2.
To be continued…
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