OK F1 fans! Here's my review starting from the start ;)
Sebastian Vettel and his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo got good starts but Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen had to really defend his position against the young Russian Daniil Kvyat. Kimi did what he does best and got away from Kvyat. The other Finn Valtteri Bottas overtook Nico Rosberg but could not keep the position and was stuck in 7th after VET, RIC, RAI, KVY, HAM and ROS. The two Force Indias almost took each other out when fighting for positions but managed to keep it clean for the time being.
Nico Hulkenberg kept it clean until lap 13 and crashed into Felipe Massa. I don't know what he was thinking but he didn't give the Brazilian any room and had to take all the blame for the crash. He even got a penalty for it (drops 3 spots in the next event).
The crash lead to a virtual safety car and almost everybody pitted. Jenson Button's pitstop took about 40 seconds + the time on the pit straights. McLaren can't blame Honda for everything can they? That was just awful.
On lap 15 the real safety car was deployed and now we have had a safety car in every Singapore GP there has ever been. Very interesting!
On lap 19 the race continued and Carlos Sainz got problems with his gear box. The gear went on neutral for a while and then just fixed itself after he got dropped to the back. He had the same problem in Shanghai earlier this year.
Lewis Hamilton started to have technical problems on lap 27 and got overtaken by almost everybody who was near him. I was a bit surprised that Mercedes didn't take him in to the pits right when they spotted the problems. I mean why not? Was it a risk? Later they asked him to pit and when they couldn't fix the problems he was forced to retire.
Felipe Massa also retired on lap 31 and so did Fernando Alonso on lap 34. They had technical issues as well.
Lap 37 was interesting when some idiot took o stroll on the track and spent the night in jail. Of course the safety car was deployed again. On lap 41 the race continued but the newbie Alexander Rossi had driven between Räikkönen and Ricciardo and stayed there. He should have overtaken the safety car and joined them on the same lap. Why didn't he? He said that he didn't know what to do and his radio was broken. Oh ok... I guess it happens sometimes.
On the same lap Pastor Maldonado and Button were fighting at the back and touched. Maldonado the man who has had the most penalties in F1 history drove over Button's front wing. Button said on the radio "I should have known he's mental". Later Button had to retire the race.
The DNF list had a lot of experienced drivers! I mean take a look at this: Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Massa, Alonso and now Button.
Bottas almost retired too! (even though he is not that experienced ;)) On lap 56 he got gear box problems and was asked to be careful with it. I mean how can you be careful with a semi-automatic gear box? There's no clutch or anything so the only thing you do is push buttons to change gears. What a weird comment from his team. Lucky for him he managed to finish 5th. In front of him was VET, RIC, RAI and ROS. Not so easy to beat those guys so he should be happy for the result, I mean with the problems and all.
One of the best moments was when Toro Rosso asked Max Verstappen to let Carlos Sainz pass. The answer was "NO!!" :D Great stuff!
That was it and now it's time for my predictions and see how terribly I did. Must be a worst ever for me!
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel took pole.
The Top 3 on Sunday
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel won the race.
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 4th and Ricciardo was 2nd.
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. His teammate (Räikkönen) was 3rd.
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Ricciardo was fastest on Sunday.
Surprise: Force India will have a good result - Hulkenberg retired and Perez was 7th so at least it was an ok race for him but nothing special.
Don't forget to post your own predictions for the PREDICTORS LEAGUE!
POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10
+ possible bonus points
HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!
THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.
