2015 Japanese GP - Drivers Press Conference (video)

The best part was when Sebastian Vettel made Jenson Button "emotional" :D

2015 Japanese Grand Prix preview

Hello again! It's the 27th time Suzuka hosts an F1 event and it seems that this GP is here to stay. So many championships have been decided here and so many legendary memories.

Take a look at Ayrton Senna's pole lap from 1988:

My best memories are the Senna-Prost battles in 1988-1990, Häkkinen-Schumacher in 1998-2000 and also Kimi Räikkönen overtaking Fisichella on the last lap and winning the race in 2005.

Then of course last year Jules Bianchi had his accident which lead to his death later on this year. Very sad stuff and I will be very disappointed if they don't do something to remember him this weekend. I know they already had one but still... this is the place where it happened. Everybody will be thinking about him. I hope the safety is better this year.

Jules Bianchi

Let's move on to something less sad...

Lewis Hamilton has won the Japanese GP twice. He won last year and also the very wet Japanese GP back in 2007 only it was at Fuji, not at Suzuka. This track is more important for Hamilton than Fuji because his idol, Ayrton Senna, secured his championship here more than once. Hamilton will be very hungry for this win. Even more because of Ferrari's win in the last race.

My guess is if Hamilton's car works he will have a perfect weekend and Sebastian Vettel will be right behind him. 

Vettel has always been good here and he got more hungry after the last win. He will beat Nico Rosberg here but it won't be easy.

Here are my predictions:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Vettel will beat Rosberg in the points and become Hamilton's biggest threat. Ferrari is now really starting to compete against Mercedes.

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

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. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 

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. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

2015 Singapore GP (Full Race)

The full race for the ones who missed the race!

2015 Singapore Grand Prix review

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

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel won the race.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 4th and Ricciardo was 2nd.
3. 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.

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Singapore GP

1. Peter McLaren - 109 points

2. James Redman - 102 points

3. Leonardo Machado - 93 points 

4. Jonathan M Yountz - 91 points

5. Ryan Lane - 76 points

6. Larry Gallagher - 68 points

7. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 67 points

8. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 66 points

9. Shaun Magnano - 59 points

10. Rich Kewell - 53 points

11. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 44 points

12. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 40 points

13. Tim Saunders - 36 points

14. Jaakko Iivari - 35 points

15. Elliott Robson - 31 points

16. David Perry - 26 points

17. Dylan Curry - 24 points

18. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

18. Archie Donato - 23 points

18. Neil Marchant - 23 points

21. Abijith Kv - 18 points

21. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

23. Yõrt Martö - 13 points

24. Richard Gehl - 10 points

24. Chris Kemp - 10 points

24. Eric Lemens - 10 points

27. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

27. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Vitor Lobo - 8 points

30. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 6 points

31. Todd Steinberg - 5 points

32. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

32. Tom Maw - 3 points

32. Haresh Reddy - 3 points

32. Paul Beecham - 3 points

36. Steven Peli - 0 points

36. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

36. Martin Hubbard - 0 points
36. Sharon Walmsley - 0 points

36. Alexandre Langlois - 0 points

We have had 40 different predictors this season.

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.

2015 Driver standings after the Singapore GP

2015 Constructor standings after the Singapore GP