subject: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso Singes Singapore Circuit For Second Victory In A Row [print this page] The Singapore F1 race takes place on the Marina Bay Street Circuit in the city. This is a modern street circuit, with the city skyline providing a breathtaking background for the Grand Prix race. The Marina Bay Street Circuit makes use of powerful lighting systems to replicate daylight driving conditions.
The Singapore race is a 61 Lap affair. The circuit length is 5.073 km. The race distance is 309.316 km.
Qualifying runs on the Saturday saw Ferrari's Fernando Alonso secure the pole position for Sunday's race. Sebastian Vettel of RBR-Renault (Red Bull Racing) captured second spot on the grid.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton, driving for McLaren-Mercedes was third in qualifying. His teammate, fellow Brit, Jenson Button, came in fourth in qualifying. Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate rounded out the top five on the grid for the Grand Prix race.
The race began with Sebastian Vettel attempting to take over the lead from Alonso on the first lap. However, Alonso managed to hold of the aggressive move by Vettel and hold onto first place to start the race. In fact, he never did relinquish his lead, despite some intense pressure from Vettel throughout the race.
Alonso drove with the steely determination and focus he is known for, with Vettel just as relentless behind him. They ended the race the way they started it, in first and second respectively.
It remained for the rest of the GP field to jockey the rest of the way for the remaining positions. In doing so, misfortune befell top contenders who had hoped for better results.
A perfect example of this was Lewis Hamilton. After starting third on the grid, things unraveled for him as he experienced heavy rear tire wear as did his teammate Jenson Button.
A switch to harder tires helped, but a mishap on Lap 36 with Red Bull's Mark Webber caused Hamilton to leave the race. His car suffered a broken suspension, and his race day was over.
However, Webber did manage to survive this encounter and he drove brilliantly the rest of the way. He fought his way up to third spot, after negotiating some difficult traffic and ended the race in that position to garner a valuable 15 points.
Jenson Button, tire wear and all, couldn't hold the pace of Alonso's Ferrari or Vettel's Red Bull car. He drove his usual disciplined race of finesse, and finished where he started the race, in fourth place. That finish earned Button 12 Championship points.
It was another strong race for Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg. He has continued to out duel his teammate Michael Schumacher all year.
Rosberg drove smartly and secured fifth spot to earn 10 points. Multiple world champion Schumacher had to settle for thirteenth spot in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Veteran Formula 1 racer Rubens Barrichello had a good day for his Williams-Cosworth team. He managed to hold off Mark Webber for awhile, eventually relinquishing position to him. However, a sixth place finish was very respectable and earned him 8 Championship points.
Renault's Robert Kubica also put in a strong performance to place in the top ten. He started eighth on the grid and at one point in the GP race dropped down to thirteenth. He recovered and with astute driving managed to work his way back up to seventh spot and secure 6 points.
Rounding out the top ten finishers were Ferrari's Felipe Massa who finished eighth. Adrian Sutil of Force India-Mercedes came in ninth, and Nico Hulkenberg of Williams-Cosworth came in tenth. Felipe Massa's finish was a victory of sorts, considering he started the race in position 24 on the grid.
There was the usual number of retirements for an F1 race. Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi left the race on Lap 2 with suspension damage. Virgin's Timo Glock retired on Lap 50 because of hydraulics trouble. Lotus's Jarno Trulli also left the race with hydraulics trouble on Lap 28.
The BMW Sauber team did not have a good Grand Prix day. Kamui Kobayashi retired on Lap 31 due to an accident. Nick Heidfeld left the race on Lap 37 due to an accident. It was misfortune for the HRT team as well. Christian Klien retired on Lap 32 due to hydraulics and teammate Bruno Senna dropped out on Lap 30 because of an accident.
With a handful of races to go in the 2010 Formula 1 season, Mark Webber of RBR-Renault leads the Drivers Championship with 202 points. In second is Fernando Alonso of Ferrari with 191 points.
Lewis Hamilton sits in third with 182 points. Sebastian Vettel is in fourth spot with 181 points, followed by Jenson Button in fifth with 177 points.
In the Constructors Championship, RBR-Renault sits in first with 383 points. McLaren-Mercedes holds down second spot with 359 points. Ferrari sits in third with 319 points.
Up next is the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, at the very challenging Suzuka circuit.
Grand Prix drama is certainly building as the Drivers Championship tightens up. It will be all teams going for broke, trying to gain that advantage that will propel them through to the ultimate prize in the coming weeks.
