Copyright Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad

Months of anticipation and preparation finally came to a wonderful joyous end with a dramatic Singapore Grand Prix. At the start of the race it looked like the top 3 driver of Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamiton and Kimi Räikkönen looked strong in their respective positions. However, as the night went on, dramas took place in ways you would never quite expect them to.

As the five red lights went out for the first ever night race in Formula 1 history, the cars made their ways around the track battling for positions. Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren-Mercedes was involved in a tussle with BMW's Robert Kubica and the Polish's wheels touched the McLaren's sidepod, forcing him to drop back in the field. Meanwhile in the mid field Jarno Trulli was holding back the rest and it was obvious the Italian was on a very heavy fuel strategy.  It took Nico Rosberg, who was in the tenth position 7 laps to get past the Italian and the rest behind Trulli followed suit.

Felipe Massa began to pull away from the rest of the field and was gradually building up a steady lead until the accident of Nelson Piquet Jr brought out the safety car. Piquet crashed his Renault at Turn 17 (Marina Bay grandstands) but walked away unscathed. This proved to be a crucial 'help' to his teammate Fernando Alonso. Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica were both penalised later for entering the pits when the pit lane is closed while the safety car was out as they were running out of fuel.

It wasn't long before the pit lane was open and everyone dived into the pitlane. Kimi Räikkönen was waiting behind Felipe Massa and unfortunately that is when disaster struck for the Ferrari team. Using the electronic signal instead of the lollipop man to signal when the car was safe to pull out from the pit (meaning the pitstop was complete), Ferrari paid heavily for it. Felipe Massa saw the signal turned green and pulled out from the pit, not realising that the fuel hose was still attached to the car, pulling a mechanic to the floor along with him. Fortunately the mechanic did not suffer any serious injuries. Felipe Massa had to pull to a stop at the end of the pitlane and wait for the mechanics to come and remove the fuel hose - which didn't came off easily.

Massa's race was effectively over when he was then penalised with a drive-through penalty for the unsafe release from pit.

Nico Rosberg put in a few fast laps to build a gap against the rest of the field, before finally diving down to the pitlanes to serve his penalty. He rejoined the pack in 4th place and was luckier than Kubica, who eventually finished the race in 11th place and point-less. Mark Webber's Red Bull began to lose gears and had to retire from the race. Similarly, Rubens Barrichello suffered from a mechanical failure and also retired.

David Coulthard suffered a similar fate to Felipe Massa's and nearly took the fuel hose down the pitlane with him too as he tried to exit the pit early. Massa's frustration was growing evidently and spun, with Adrian Sutil plunging the nose of his Force India into the barriers at the same spot just as Massa recovered from the spin. That crash brought out the safety car for the final time and with just 7 laps to go everyone was charged up for the final dash to the finish as the cars crossed the start-finish line and began jostling for positions again. Fernando Alonso showed the improvement of Renault R28 as he pulled away from 2nd placed Nico Rosberg and 3rd placed Lewis Hamilton, while Kimi Räikkönen in 5th place began chasing down Toyota's Timo Glock.

Ferrari's only hope for points in the Constructor's Championship was then dashed along with Räikkönen's crash. With just 4 laps to go, the Finn bounced over the curbs at Turn 10 and crashed into the barriers like Giancarlo Fisichella did for the 3rd practice session.

Sebastian Vettel moved up a place thanks to Räikkönen's crash, while Nick Heidfeld scored the only points for BMW with a 6th placed finish. David Coulthard was lucky to end the race in 7th place, picking up 2 points for Red Bull. 

Williams became the only team with both drivers in point-scoring positions as Kazuki Nakajima took the final point in 8th place.

Nico Rosberg (L), Fernando Alonso (C) and Lewis Hamilton (R). Copyright Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad

Moving into the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks' time, Ferrari will be working hard to eliminate mistakes for the last 3 races, with McLaren-Mercedes already overtaken them on the Constructor's Championship by 1 point. It would be officially a two-horse race to the end between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, with both Robert Kubica (3rd in championship standing) and Kimi Räikkönen failing to score points this round. 

Stay tuned for the pictures courtesy of F1GPSG.com! Don't forget to submit your entries for our Rule with the Roo competition!

Results
01 F. Alonso Renault 1:57:16.304
02 N. Rosberg Williams + 2.957
03 L. Hamilton McLaren + 5.917
04 T. Glock Toyota + 8.155
05 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 10.268
06 N. Heidfeld BMW + 11.101
07 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 16.387
08 K. Nakajima Williams + 18.489
09 J. Button Honda + 19.885
10 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 26.902
11 R. Kubica BMW + 27.975
12 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 29.432
13 F. Massa Ferrari + 35.170
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 43.571
Did not finish
15 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 4 laps
16 J. Trulli Toyota + 11 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 12 laps
18 M. Webber Red Bull + 32 laps
19 R. Barrichello Honda + 46 laps
20 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 47 laps
Times from PlanetF1.com

Comments

anonymous (202.156.8.9) 2008-11-15 21:10:06 F.Massa maybe should win in next year's Singapore's Formula One Race. We will be proud of him n cheer him. Reply

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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