2013 Singapore Grand Prix Review

I would have to say that the heros of Singapore were Räikkönen and Alonso. A super start from Alonso and a great consistent race from Räikkönen.

It seemed that Vettel was unbeatable with his Red Bull, Alonso was the best of the rest and Räikkönen got the best possible result with the Lotus.

I already said on the F1 4 LIFE Facebook page that I must give some respect to Räikkönen for finishing third even though he had back pains, no KERS, a car that can't win races, started from 13th place and gets no money from driving. I can't wait to see what kind of results he can get with a Ferrari.

Statistically Räikkönen was more successful than Alonso at Ferrari but let's see what happens next year.

The race was a big disappointment for Grosjean. I really hoped that he could get some good results finally. Lotus could be happy though when Räikkönen saved the situation with the podium.

The other disappointment was Mark Webber's retirement. He had driven well but what can you do if the car doesn't last till the end. Funny how it always happens to Webber and not Vettel. What is he doing wrong or is the reason something else? Who knows?

Let's take a look at my guesses and the actual results. Here are my guesses:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Surprise: Felipe Massa, Ferrari

And then the actual results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

The surprise was supposed to be Massa and he did surprise by being faster than Alonso in qualifying. The real surprise was probably Räikkönen. I know he is a superb driver but I had no clue that he would be on the podium.

The TOP3 was 2 right out of 3. I said that Kimi would do the fastest lap but instead he was third. I had too much fate in Hamilton and Massa so you could say that they let me down. I hope that Massa will drive in a good team next year because at this point it could be even possible that he doesn't get a F1 seat at all.

2013 Singapore Grand Prix Preview

Singapore

This weekend will be interesting on so many levels! A lot has happened after the Italian Grand Prix. Kimi has signed with Ferrari, Massa is leaving and stated that he will not help Alonso anymore, Luca di Montezemolo on the otherhand said that he will. Who knows what will happen.

The Singapore GP is legendary even though it is one of the newer tracks. It was the first night grand prix and it is also known for the "crashgate" scandal.

Nelson Piquet Jr. crashes into the wall on purpose.

Crashgate was perpetrated by the Renault F1 team who ordered Nelson Piquet, Jr. to crash deliberately during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, in order to gain an advantage for Fernando Alonso who was his teammate at the time.

On 28 September 2008, on the 14th lap of the Singapore race, Piquet crashed into the circuit wall at turn 17, necessitating a safety car deployment. This allowed Alonso to make an early pitstop and subsequently gain the advantage to win the race after starting 15th on the grid. Piquet described his crash at the time as a simple mistake.

After being dropped by the Renault team following the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Piquet alleged that he had been asked by the team to deliberately crash to improve the race situation for Alonso, sparking an investigation of Renault F1 for race fixing by the FIA. After the investigation, Renault F1 were charged with conspiracy on September 4th, and were to answer the charge on September 21st 2009.

Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Jr.

On September 16th Renault stated that they would not contest the charges, and announced that the team's managing director, Flavio Briatore, and it's executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, had left the team.

On September 21st it was announced that the Renault F1 team had been handed a disqualification from Formula One, which was suspended for two years pending any further comparable rule infringements. Briatore was suspended from all Formula One events and FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely, whilst Symonds received a five-year ban. Their bans were subsequently overturned by a French court, although they both agreed not to work in Formula One or FIA-sanctioned events for a specified time as part of a later settlement reached with the FIA.

Last year the Singapore Grand Prix was the race were I knew that Vettel is going to be the champion again in 2012 and it seems that he will be in 2013 as well. Let's hope next year will be more interesting.

This year the "drama" might just spice up the grid a bit. Massa doesn't care about helping Alonso anymore, Hulkenberg and a few others are really trying to show their skills to keep their F1 seats or to get a better ones.

Lotus is checking out Massa at the moment and there he has one more reason to show everybody that he is still fast. The media had just asked him "Are you faster than Alonso?" He laughed and said "YES". I hope Massa will step up this weekend and show the world that he is still a super driver.

And now what I think will happen this weekend:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Surprise: Felipe Massa, Ferrari

2005 GP2 - Race 1 at Nurburgring (FULL RACE)

The first GP2 race at Nurburgring with F1 drivers such as Pantano, Speed, Rosberg, Piquet Jr. and the phenomenal Heikki Kovalainen! This guy can really drive. Unfortunately he is without a Formula One seat at the moment. I hope that he can find one for the next season cause he really deserves it more than many other drivers in F1.

In the meantime check out Kovalainen's nice driving in this video.