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?

Auction Shows View Through the Lens of Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton snaps a photo from the cockpit of his McLaren for the Zoom Auction (Image Courtesy of Zoom Auction)

Would you like to own a photo taken by your favorite driver or team principal?  What if your bid for a piece of F1 history went to help a charitable cause, would you join in to help those in need?

Sebastian Vettel's favorite view in the Alps (Image Courtesy of Zoom Auction)

This is the concept of the Zoom Auction, a competition between the biggest names in Formula 1 to test their photography skills and auction their images to raise money for charity. Over 50 images make up the collection, all taken by the biggest names in Formula , including Lewis Hamilton, Damon Hil, and Sir Frank Williams. 

In partnership with motorsports auction specialists, Coy's of Kensington, the Zoom auction will be held tomorrow in the ballroom of the Wyndham Grand London Chelsea Harbour in London, England.  The evening event includes a 250 person VIP reception and live auction to be attended by many of F1's biggest names.  Though only a small group of Formula 1's fans will attend the event, anyone interested in participating in the auction is invited to bid remotely. More information about remote participation is availible on the official Zoom Auction website.

The auction is a unique concept, offering the chance for fans to obtain a special piece of Formula 1 history and see the world through the eyes of a Formula 1 driver or team principal. All proceeds from the event go to support the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, a favorite of the Formula 1 Group and official charity of the British Grand Prix.

Race Review: Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton takes a commanding lead at Monza (Image by HOCH ZWEI)// Monza

It's hard to see straight across the sea of red. The most passionate, brilliant red reserved for the most famous automobile brand with a horse was all over the grandstands at the Italian Grand Prix. Everywhere around the tracks, there were red Ferrari flags, red shirts, red hats, red hair wigs, like I said, sea of red. Massive crowds of fans gathered at Monza to watch the Italian Grand Prix unfold. And Monza did not disappoint!

At the qualifying, odds on favorite Alonso did very well until he had a mechanical problem, Massa capitalized on that and qualified ahead of Alonso to land at P3 while Alonso had to settle with P10. Hamilton and Button took over the front row of the grid with tremendous drives. Red Bulls were less than stellar at P5 for Vettel and P11 for Webber.

The 1st Lap is always exciting to watch. Hamilton defended his position right away from Button but it was Massa who surged ahead, passed Button then went side by side with Hamilton, though ultimately not able to pass. Alonso, incredibly have gone up from 10th to 6th by Lap 2. There was no stopping Hamilton though, he did a flawless drive and converted his pole to a 3rd win this season.

Perez qualified P12 but stealthily climbed up the positions. He started with the hard tyres, stayed out as long as he could until Lap 29 (!!) and switched to soft tyres after pit stop. This was a brilliant tyres strategy from the Sauber team. Hedid some great overtaking throughout, and with fresher soft tyres near the latter part of the race, he was easily passing other drivers to take home 2nd spot. Perez is definitely a rising star. Some even rumored that he may be take Massa's spot for 2013!

There was a bit of tit for tat playing out between Vettel and Alonso at Lap 26. Last year at Monza, Vettel tried to pass Alonso at one point and wasn't able to make the pass stick, but got slightly wide as Alonso tried to claim the racing line. This move left Vettel with 2 wheels on the grass at high speed. This year, some are calling this a revenge move from Vettel, Alonso tried to pass Vettel at the exact same spot but Vettel didn't leave enough room for Alonso, and made Alonso slid onto the grass on all wheels. As if he's expecting this, Alonso got on team radio immediately to complain about Vettel's move which subsequently got Vettel a drive through penalty. Innocent driving incident or premeditated revenge? We'll never know.

In the end, it didn't matter for Vettel. Both Red Bulls had mechanical issues that caused neither of Vettel or Webber to finish the race. Vettel had mechanical problem and had to stop on the grass at Lap 47, meanwhile Webber flat spotted at Lap 51 and got called in by the team to retire before damaging the car. With a 53-Lap race, to retire at Lap 51 is entirely too painful. It's been a very long time since Red Bull had a double retirement. Are reliability issues rearing its ugly head at Red Bull again? Tell us what’s up, Adrian Newey!

Other drivers with misfortunes include Button, Hulkenberg and Vergne. Button had a fuel pickup issue with his car and had to roll onto grass and retire at Lap 32. Hulkenberg also had car problems and retired at Lap 50. Vergne was out much earlier at Lap 9 getting airborne (and then back down) as a result of spinning out.

All of drama and retirement did not distract Alonso though, who never for a moment gave up with P10, but hustled all the way to land at 3rd spot on the podium. This is an important win for Alonso with him not scoring any points at Spa last weekend and Hamilton taking the most points by winning this race.

We wrap up the race with Alonso leading the championship (still), Hamilton is now 2nd, and Raikkonen 3rd. What a shake up!

The next race will be at Singapore on 9/21 - 9/23. This is one of my favorite tracks to watch - night race, street circuit, Singapore skyline and landmarks as backdrop, not a dull moment. Catch you then!

Hungarian GP Review

Lewis Hamilton tops the Hungarian GP with the Lotus boys, Kimi Raikkonnen and Romain Grosjean, just behind

Britain is having the best week ever. First, London Olympic is off to a fantastic and sheep-filled start, and secondly, Hamilton took home the Gold medal-equivalent at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. Well done, Britain. Well done!

Out of the qualifying sessions, Hamilton clenched the crucial pole position with Grosjean trailing behind in P2, and Vettel at P3. Schumacher had the worst luck, ended up in P17 after qualifying. The poor qualifying later was compounded by not able to start on the grid, leading to start from the Pit lane, which then lead to speeding in the pit lane, ended with a drive-through penalty due to speeding and then retiring at Lap 60. Overall, a rather horrible day at the office for Schumacher.  Meanwhile, Alonso, who's been dominant in the last few races had to deal with a disappointing P6 after qualifying.

Due to Schumacher's car inability to start on the grid, the cars have to do another formation lap. The extra formation lap is counted towards the total number of laps, so the drivers will have to race 69-lap rather than 70-lap. Who knew there's such an FIA rule?

Hamilton aggressively lead the race from the very beginning. He made very few errors, in fact, I think the only thing that could have been improved for Hamilton may bethe McLaren pit stops (again!). Hamilton had two pitstops during the Hungarian Grand Prix, lap 18 and lap 40, which for the most part were smooth and quick. Due to the horrid pit stop performances in some of the races this year, I still get nervous for McLaren during all their pit stops.

Grosjean was relentless in staying right behind Hamilton for the most part, constantly putting pressure with an average of 1 sec gap, though ultimately not able to make any overtaking bids. Hamilton won this race with pure speed and determination, landing him his 2nd win this season and his 3rd win at this circuit.

In a track where overtaking has been known to be particularly difficult, we saw some pretty exciting wheel-to-wheel actions. Button and Vettel were battling it out at the start of the race with Button overtaking Vettel to get into 3rd place. Equally, if not more, nail-biting was when Raikkonen came out of pit lane after pit stop at lap 45, Grosjean was just coming down the track and we saw two Lotus dueling with real danger of crushing. I think Grosjean may have been surprised by Raikkonen, as the

Lotus team radioed Grosjean to let him know that "You're racing Kimi!". Way to go, Raikkonen, on pulling off a move like that with the fresh tyres. That particular move paid off handsomely for Raikkonen as he was able to take 2nd while leaving Grosjean to 3rd in the final results.

As much as this is a big win for McLaren and Hamilton, it's even grander results for Lotus to have double podium. The Lotus cars are getting really good pace and remains competitive with the big 3. I am still optimistic that Raikkonen will win one (or few) Grand Prix this season. Never under-estimate the Iceman, I say! We may still see Raikkonen smile or show the slightest of emotions this season!

Another race weekend, another grid girl outfit. The grid girl outfits continue to be somewhat unimaginative. I think I may have to stop hoping for the couture grid girl outfit. For the Hungarian Grand Prix, the grid girls were dressed in a white and yellow "dress". It starts out looking like a white golf shirt on the top part and then color-morphed to a short yellow bottom. It's catchy visually but slightly odd-looking. This dress makes me long for the all-red-with-white-bow classy but boring dress that we saw a few races back. And Best Post-race hair? Hamilton takes the prize.

Don't forget that F1 is having a summer break for August. There'll be no more races until 8/31! Me sad. Until then, Keep Calm and Carry On! See you late August!