Singaporean Qualifying: Gaps closing as night falls...

On the floodlit streets of Singapore, the usual hierarchy threatened to be disposed of, as teams who have shown weakness and lack of pace, through the first half of the season, delivered fantastic performances. As we approached the final top ten shootout, things appeared to settle down, but Q1 was certainly dramatic. The Ferrari's looked very strong, whilst Gutierrez, in the Sauber, spent a short time in second place and Force India's Hulkenberg held pole for a time. Whether it was simply a case of tyre differences or the track gradually rubbering in, the first session of qualifying was uncharacteristically exciting.

Both Q2 and Q3 were as predictable as ever, but the third session threatened to throw everything in to disarray. Both Hamilton and Rosberg deserve credit for pulling out all the stops in the closing minutes of the top ten shootout, because both of them had struggled throughout the weekend. It was revealed that Mercedes had new brakes, coming to Singapore, and in fairness that was glaringly obvious. Rosberg over shot one of the corners, after a lock up in the first few moments of Q1, which was uncharacteristic for Nico, at least at that stage of a qualifying session. Lewis also locked up a few times, the rear end of his race car looking very loose.

Ferrari might might show some good pace during the race, because with Raikonnen's engine problem, right near the end of Q3, we may have been robbed of a challenge to Mercedes, who eventually locked out the front row. It certainly feels like the chasers are closing in on the Silver Arrows, even though they won't be able to make a dent in their Championship lead, this late on. One promising aspect of qualifying, was the impression that the cars were all struggling for grip, around the twenty-four turns of the Singaporean street circuit. With it's treacherously placed walls, the race promises some costly mistakes, with so few stages of the season remaining and the competition hotting up.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:46.921	1:46.287	1:45.681	17
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:47.244	1:45.825	1:45.688	19
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:47.488	1:46.493	1:45.854	12
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:47.476	1:46.586	1:45.902	15
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:46.889	1:46.328	1:45.907	16
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:47.615	1:46.472	1:46.000	20
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.685	1:46.359	1:46.170	14
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:47.196	1:46.622	1:46.187	18
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:47.976	1:46.700	1:46.250	18
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:47.656	1:46.926	1:47.362	21
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:47.161	1:46.943		12
12	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:47.407	1:46.989		14
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:47.370	1:47.308		13
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:47.970	1:47.333		9
15	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.143	1:47.575		13
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:47.862	1:47.812		14
17	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:48.324			6
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:49.063			8
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:49.440			7
20	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:50.405			8
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:50.473			7
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:52.287			5

Japanese Grand Prix: Webber pushes to the max!

The end of the Japanese Grand Prix was a bit of an anti-climax, in the closing few laps, simply because neutral fans were denied a fight between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The redeeming factor in preventing Webber from snatching the win back from Vettel, was a fellow by the name of Romain Grosjean. Grosjean showed a level of maturity and competency that we have not really seen from him before. On the podium he choked up a little, when interviewed by Eddie Jordan, and it was a fascinating display of how much success means to the young man. The old hand, Mark Webber, was a little disappointing and disappointed, in equal measure. Yelling at the TV screen, did very little to help Webber pass Grosjean at his first and most ideal opportunity, a pass that would almost certainly have seen him then racing with Vettel.

Vettel appears to simply get better and better. As the race began, he found himself squeezed and hampered by both Grosjean and Hamilton and was lucky to come out of it in third place. Hamilton was less fortunate, as he clipped his right rear tyre on Vettel's front wing and was victim to an instant puncture. The puncture all but ended his race and when he detected further damage he was forced to retire his Mercedes. Vettel played a game that many would have felt he was incapable of, protecting his tyres and saving his engine. He has become renowned for his habit of pushing hard when the team is telling him to ease off. However, in a race that quickly became a two stopper for the German, he had to preserve the car and did it perfectly.

Once again, the racing in the middle of the field was intense. Race cars chopping and dicing for positions, with tyres bouncing off each other on the exits of corners. DRS didn't seem to have too much impact on the race and it allowed some of the real quality to shine through. Nico Hulkenberg had yet another fantastic race, whilst the two McLaren drivers found themselves well down the order again. With only four races to go, despite Seb looking certain for the title now, its fair to say that the racing, further back down the order, will just get more exciting.

The Result:

	Driver	Car	Team	Grid	Fastest Lap	Race Time	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	1	Red Bull	2	1:35.317	1:26:49.301	25
2	Mark Webber	2	Red Bull	1	1:34.587	+00:07.129	18
3	Romain Grosjean	8	Lotus	4	1:35.991	+00:09.910	15
4	Fernando Alonso	3	Ferrari	8	1:35.877	+00:45.605	12
5	Kimi Raikkonen	7	Lotus	9	1:35.516	+00:47.325	10
6	Nico Hulkenberg	11	Sauber	7	1:36.482	+00:51.615	8
7	Esteban Gutierrez	12	Sauber	14	1:36.499	+01:11.630	6
8	Nico Rosberg	9	Mercedes	6	1:34.650	+01:12.023	4
9	Jenson Button	5	McLaren	10	1:35.549	+01:20.821	2
10	Felipe Massa	4	Ferrari	5	1:37.001	+01:29.263	1
11	Paul Di Resta	14	Force India	12	1:37.407	+01:38.572	0
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	18	Toro Rosso	17	1:35.895	lapped	0
13	Daniel Ricciardo	19	Toro Rosso	16	1:35.020	lapped	0
14	Adrian Sutil	15	Force India	22	1:37.367	lapped	0
15	Sergio Perez	6	McLaren	11	1:35.845	lapped	0
16	Pastor Maldonado	16	Williams	15	1:37.423	lapped	0
17	Valtteri Bottas	17	Williams	13	1:37.856	lapped	0
18	Charles Pic	20	Caterham	20	1:37.489	lapped	0
19	Max Chilton	23	Marussia	18	1:38.713	lapped	0
20	Lewis Hamilton	10	Mercedes	3	1:41.202	retired, 7 laps	0
21	Giedo van der Garde	21	Caterham	19	No time	retired, 0 laps	0
22	Jules Bianchi	22	Marussia	21	No time	retired, 0 laps	0

Italian Grand Prix qualifying...

Qualifying in Monza started slowly and then by the time Q2 arrived things really took off. There were some shock results at the end of the second session and many of the top players failed to make it through to the final shoot out. The Force India drivers look to be having another one of their difficult weekends, Paul Di Resta having a crash in Free Practice and then both cars failing to make it in to Q3.

Both Lotus cars failed to make it to Q3, which is a huge blow to Kimi Raikonnen's championship challenge. The small consolation for Kimi will be the massive shock of Lewis Hamilton dropping out in Q2. He was back to his unprofessional ways in his post session interview, in which he decided not to be reserved and diplomatic, but instead to call himself an idiot and blame Adrian Sutil for one of his poor laps. However, Lewis will certainly feel that he has thrown away his chance at the Championship.

Red Bull Racing were wonderfully dominant again and showed up the Ferrari drivers who attempted a bit of team strategy, which couldn't have backfired better. Alonso was meant to receive a tow in Massa's slipstream and instead was out qualified by Felipe. Vettel took pole position, with Mark Webber taking the second place on the grid. Hulkenberg was the surprise qualifier, securing the third grid slot, without a Mercedes car in sight. It will be interesting to see what Lewis and Kimi can do from way down the grid, but it is more likely that we will see the Red Bull's flying to yet another victory.