Race Review: Singapore Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium after winning the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 23, 2012 in Singapore, Singapore. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Another race, another shake up on the championship leaderboard. However, as unpredictable as the races have been, a pattern is emerging - Alonso on podium. Alonso may not win the number one spot, but he somehow always manages to get on to the podium.

How did it go down at the Singapore GP? It started with qualifying: Hamilton, after a perfect flying lap, landed the pole position. Trailing behind Hamilton in qualifying was Maldonado the Dangerous, then Vettel. Notice that Alonso is not even top 3 in Qualifying; he was P5.

With Maldonado's record, I was expecting a good battle at the front part of the grid at the start of the race. Hamilton defended his pole from Maldonado and got a clean getaway, while Vettel's slick maneuver got him ahead of Maldonado, and then Button also took a run on Maldonado and passed the Williams driver to take the 3rd position. It is as if a different Maldonado was in the Williams car altogether; where is his usual aggressive drive?

The Marina Bay Street circuit is notoriously difficult track to overtake - a car needs to be a few seconds ahead to overtake, which means tyres and pit stop strategy were paramount in giving a driver the advantage to get ahead. With 61 laps in the race, the most sensible way to manage is a two-stop strategy, which most cars opted for. In terms of tyres, the soft was more durable than the supersoft so most teams were trying to get the drivers to squeeze as much drive as possible from the soft tyres.

Hamilton's pit stop at lap 13 was incredibly fast at 2.9 sec, paired with his quick pace throughout the laps, he looked unbeatable in winning the race. However, it was not his day. In an unlikely turn of events, Hamilton's McLaren had a gearbox failure at lap 23, leaving him with a car but no drive. I would have thrown a hissy fit, but Hamilton handled it with unusual calmness, perhaps he was thinking this is a sign for him to leave McLaren and move to Mercedes.

Shortly after Hamilton's gutting moment, Maldonado's car also suffered an untimely end at lap 35. It's most unfortunate to see two cars that were on front rows on the grid that would likely battle out to the bitter end both retire early.

As most anticipated, the safety car made not one, but two, appearances at the Singapore GP. The safety car came out at Lap 34 when Karthikeyan crashed out, and at Lap 40 when Schumacher crashed into Vergne. The safety car rounds took quite a while, such that the race timed out and concluded at the 2-hour mark rather than completion of 61 laps.

Without a truly heated battle up at the front with Hamilton and Maldonado out, we end the race with Vettel, Button, and Alonso moving into podium for top 3. Alonso still leads the championship with Vettel now trailing in 2nd and Raikkonen in 3rd place. Who did you think will have the best drive at the Japanese GP on October 7th?

Race Preview: Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton at Singapore GPStreet circuit with 23 corners.Night race that needs 3,180,000 watts of power to light up the tracks. Singapore Grand Prix is upon us this weekend. Let me hear you RAWR!

In many ways similar to the Monaco Grand Prix, this 61-lap race is famous for its winding street corners, so winding are these corners, in fact, that the Singapore's Marina Bay Street Circuit has some of the slowest average speed in the F1 calendar. The track (aka the streets) are lit up to the point that it is four times brighter than the lights at a football stadium. Slower speed plus brightly-lit tracks means we see the racing actions clearer than usual as the race cars hustle through the streets of Singapore with a gorgeous city skyline as backdrop.

For this track, Pirelli decided that Soft and Supersoft are the optimal tyres to use, which makes sense considering the conditions of this track. I wonder how the teams will play out their tyres strategy, one-stop may be a very tall ask on this track with the number of laps needed.

As if he needs any more luck on his side, Alonso has won twice at this track previously while Vettel and Hamilton both have won once here. Will Alonso keep up his lead in the championship or will Raikkonen surge ahead to number two spot in the championship, thus closing in the gap to Alonso? Will Hamilton be able to focus and win another top spot on the podium while his future for 2013 is still "under negotiation" with McLaren and/or Mercedes? However this may go down, I'll be glued to the monitor this weekend for the Singapore GP actions!

The race this weekend aside, are there any gamers out there who have played F1 video games? I  happened upon a Gamespot video that documented the history of F1 video games. From the hay days with little groups of pixels moving on screen to the real-life-looking simulations that makes you feel like you're on a track driving that Red Bull, it was fascinating to see the evolution of the game and hear from the passionate F1 fans behind building these games. Check out the video below. 

Race Review: British Grand Prix

I had high hopes for the British Grand Prix. I even brewed some good tea for the occasion, and practiced my British accents. I wanted rain on race day, plenty of overtaking, dark horse race car that comes from behind. I think I may have set the bar too high since we've been treated with so many unbelievably thrilling races so far. The British Grand Prix seemed to have paled by a lightest of shade. 

That's not to say the race was not exciting. The Silverstone race certainly had its great moments - great defensive start by Alonso who was on pole, massive duel between Alonso and Hamilton on Lap 19 with Alonso making a pass on Hamilton only to have Hamilton come back in the next corner and then Alonso taking one more pass on Hamilton, and then of course, the winning pass that Webber did over Alonso at Lap 46 of the 52-Lap race to clench the very sweet victory.

Webber is the silent and stealthy driver of the season. He's been quietly scoring good points (currently 2nd in Championship standing), out qualifying more than his double-World Champion team mate Vettel, winning the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix and now taking home the trophy for another iconic Grand Prix. Webber also managed to be a double winner of the Silverstone track as well as the 2nd double winner of this season. Tyres strategy played a key role in Webber's win over Alonso near the end of the race, but that should not take away from the beautiful yet aggressive way that Webber has driven in this race. Immense respect for Webber!

None of the British drivers were able to fulfill the home crowds' dream of a British driver on the top of the podium - Hamilton had no pace overall, Button was stuck way behind after qualifying 16th, and di Resta was taken out in Lap 1 since he made contact and received a puncture.

One thing to note is that McLaren's pit stops have FINALLY improved for this race. Their pit stop times have been quick and, more importantly, error-free. Hope they keep this up, every action counts in a tight race like this season.

There was also a bit of track drama that was caused by the incident between Maldonado and Perez in Lap 12 after they came out from the pit. Maldonado claimed another victim by nudging Perez off, causing both cars to spin around and ultimately an early retire for Perez. Perez had some harsh words to say to Maldonado, including juicy bits about all the drivers think Maldonado is reckless and have no respect for other drivers and for the sport. It's definitely easy to be on Perez's side when this is not the first time Maldonado brought troubles to another driver.

During the race broadcast, I spotted the Grid girl outfit. I had to do a double take because at first I thought flight attendance in red uniforms were hanging about in the grid, then I realize they are Grid girls instead. Can we get some more sass into those Grid girls outfits? I'm not looking for couture fashion, just more interesting and/or more stylish will do. What about the Best Post-race hair? This race was a tough one to call, all the podium winners' hair were pretty decent but no one stands out. I suppose if I really had to pick, Webber would be the Best post-race hair winner. I know, seems unfair for one person to win both the Grand Prix AND Best Post-race hair, but I had to keep the award as unpredictable as the race itself, it's tough work and someone has to do it!

Catch you in 2 weeks' time for the German Grand Prix 7/20 - 7/22!

Race Preview: Canadian Grand Prix

Rain made the 2011 Montreal Grand Prix a complex afternoon and may effect this weekend's race as well
From one French-speaking city to another, two weeks later and a few thousand miles apart, the Canadian Grand Prix is upon us.

What Montreal lacks in glamour, compared to Monaco, is made up with its glorious track. The Canadian Grand Prix is a super fast and flat track, which means we can expect to see a whole lot more takeovers!

So far most of my prediction for every race has fallen flat, so I will stop predicting. All I know is that there've been six different winners for six different races, Red Bull has to cover up those illegal holes on their cars' floors, Hamilton is hungriest of all for a win, Alonso will want to stay in the lead for the Championship, and also as of this moment, no rain is predicted for the race. Oh, one last thing, I have high hopes for the grid girl outfits for Montreal. 

Au revoir for now.  Catch you after the Canadian Grand Prix in the Race Recap!