How cool that it was Fernando Alonso to win this race. He was so good in a mediocre car on Friday and so unlucky to have a the car break in qualifying. Ironically that bad luck set up his winning on Sunday but he drove like a double world champion, chose a risky strategy and it paid off, nobody was even close at the end.
Some shameful commentary from the usual suspects in the UK with GrandPrix.com going as far as ( with a face saving "some cynics suggest...") suggesting Renault ordered Piquet to crash into the wall. If you were following SpeedTV you also heard Peter WIndsor's bitchy comments about Alonso. Boiled down, Windsor bloviated that after he stopped on track on Saturday, Alonso made a big scene just as a sympathy ploy and meant to dis Renault. Funny thing is I used to respect Windsor, now he sees the world through the ham slices covering his eyes.
Nico Rosberg and Williams had a great one too. Rosberg came in second despite a 10 second stop and go penalty. Very impressive.
Hamilton showed maturity for once. Mclaren and Hamilton had no answer for Massa and looked like he may have had some issues with the rear tires. But they hung in there, made no mistakes and got the right brakes. In the final laps they had Lewis hold third rather than attack for second, the right move from Mclaren.
Now I know Hamilton lovers hate us because we point out things but, I could not help but notice that in the press conference Lewis first moaned about how Coulthard held him up and was really slow and ruined his race but then right after he praised DC for driving a great race. Right after again, he again lamented how passing was impossible but immediately gave the circuit top marks...I'm just saying..
And Ferrari? Ferrari blew the season Sunday. Perhaps the Pope can do something about Massa's season now but you would have to believe in miracles and that miracles can happen back to back.
Terrible for Felipe, he was by far the best in qualifying and nobody would have come close were it not for the Safety Car. Ferrari gave him a great car and Ferrari threw away everything. This automated traffic light had malfunctioned one way or another before, why use it again? I have yet to hear a convincing reason why it's better than the old, man with a stick.
As far as this business of "unsafe release" everyone is so scandalized about...well if the light worked as intended, Sutil would have gone by, there was no mistake there in that sense today.
Finally Raikkonen, I think it's time to stop making excuses for him. What happened today was either distraction or fatigue, either is unacceptable given his position. Sutil crashed, Piquet crashed...and Raikkonen? Sorry, not good enough. What happened to Raikkonen this year remains a mystery.
Singapore was exciting but for the wrong reasons, nobody wants to see races and championships decided because it takes ten minutes for marshals to clear a wreck. The track and the cars looked pretty under the lights but the circuit is what it is, another street track where these cars cannot pass.
Singapore Executive Summary from Axis of Oversteer.com Video on Vimeo.
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