F1 Singapore Results & Full Race Report: Alonso Dominates a GP at Turns Both Boring and Exhilarating

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10:11am EST — Fernando Alonso never gave up the lead, winning the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix from pole, despite two safety cars, some investigated incidents between Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld, and a fire on the front straight that required Heikki Kovalainen to become his own fireman, and a challenge from Sebastian Vettel for much of the race. Vettel finished a close second, with Webber, Jenson Button, and Nico Rosberg rounding out the top five. The racing incident between Webber and Hamilton knocked the Briton out of the race, his second DNF in a row, while the drive of the race might have been Robert Kubica’s return to seventh after a late puncture dropped him back to eleventh.

Fernando Alonso made it two poles in a row for Ferrari winning pole position for the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix halfway through Saturday’s qualifying session, with second-place starter Sebastian Vettel unable to beat the Spaniard in their final flying laps. McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button with Mark Webber round our the top five starters, while Rubens Barrichello put in a good showing for Williams to start sixth. Michael Schumacher again made it into Q3, qualifying in what feels like his typical ninths. It was a mixed-emotion day at Ferrari, with pole-sitter Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa starting last after an electronic issue kept him from posting a time in Q1 and leaving him to start last on Sunday. Alguersuari started from the pit lane because of a water leak.

Nearly the entire grid was on the soft tires as the lights went out to start, with Alonso moving over on Vettel to keep the lead as Button and Hamilton fought, with Hamilton keeping his position and fighting between Rosberg and Kubica for sixth. Massa made a couple of positions up on the start and first few turns, while Alonso had a second lead at the end of the first lap. Massa pitted, as did a damaged Heidfeld for a new front wing, with Massa switching to the harder tire, as per regulations. Meanwhile, Liuzzi had stopped on the circuit with what appeared to be a broken suspension, causing a local yellow, then the safety car on L3. Alonso led Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber, Rosberg, Kubica, Barrichello, Schumacher, and Petrov as the top ten as the SC deployed. The rear of the field stopped, barring Massa, to a man, with Webber also getting new tires and getting stuck in the pit whilst waiting for traffic to clear. As the SC picked everyone up, the the top four remained the same, with Webber falling to eleventh on the stop, right behind Timo Glock. The top eight, barring Webber, had not stopped, but twelfth back was Petrov, Hulkenberg, Sutil, Massa, Buemi, Kovalainen, Trulli, Alguersuari, di Grassi, Klien, Senna, and Heidfeld. Heidfeld had quite a lot of action with Force India on the start, getting hit from the back, and hitting the rear of Liuzzi, causing the broken suspension.

F1 Singapore Quali Results & Report: Alonso Takes Pole, 5 Title Contenders to Start in Top 5

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11:14am EST —Fernando Alonso made it two poles in a row for Ferrari winning pole position for the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix halfway through the final qualifying session, with second-place starter Sebastian Vettel unable to beat the Spaniard in their final flying laps. McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button with Mark Webber round our the top five starters, while Rubens Barrichello put in a good showing for Williams to start sixth. Michael Schumacher again made it into Q3, qualifying in what feels like his typical ninths. It was a mixed-emotion day at Ferrari, with pole-sitter Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa starting last after an electronic issue kept him from posting a time in Q1 and leaving him to start last on Sunday.

It was Red Bull all the way in both Friday practices, with Webber taking the lead as the circuit finally dried out after a typical late afternoon storm put standing water on the track an hour before the first practice. It was a topsy-turvy session, as Kobayashi, Schumacher, and Virgin Racing’s Glock spent quite a bit of time on the top of the timesheets in the middle of the session. It was the second session that brought representative dry times, as Vettel was the first and only driver into the 1:46s range, over a half second faster than his teammate Webber, who was second fastest, and a second or more faster than Button, Alonso, Hamilton, and the rest of the field. Alonso ended his session with twenty minutes to go when he went down an escape route (after being poised to set a very fast lap time) to avoid crashing and seemed to have stalled the car. According to Ferrari, “We need to wait until the car is brought back in the garage to understand what happened when Fernando was rejoining the track.” Vettel kept to the top of the timesheets for the final practice before qualifying on Saturday, leading Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, and Rosberg as the top five on a patchily damp circuit. Again, there were spins, but no major incidents.

Q1:
It was a bit of a procession to get out of the pits for the first sector of qualifying as twelve cars were on the circuit straightaway; while Hamilton was one of the first out, Button, both Ferraris, Red Bulls, Williams, and a few others remained in the garage. The track was delcared dry, though there were a few wet spots, “It looks that there are still some damp patches at turns 3 and 5,” according to Ferrari. Four minutes in and only five drivers had not headed out, with early “fast” times set by Liuzzi, Glock, and other new teams until Hamilton went straight to the top, followed by Kobayashi. Button and Vettel were fastest and second fastest, with Schumacher’s time also eclipsing Hamilton’s, and Liuzzi rouding out the top five with thirteen minutes left in the twenty minute session.

Alonso was soon fastest, but he lost that time to Vettel, both of them the only drivers in the 1:47s range as Alguersuari was a surprise in third, only to be moved backward by Webber’s 1:47.794, with Button fourth fastest. The session was stopped with just over ten minutes left for Massa stopped on the circuit with a suspected engine issue. His session was over before he could set a time. According to Ferrari, “The engine stopped but we need to see what exactly happened once the car will be brought in the garage.” Hulkenberg was the first one back onto the circuit as everyone but his teammate and Alonso stayed in the garage. Neither Williams, Sutil, nor Kubica had set a time, along with the luckless Massa. With seven minutes left in the session, Vettel remained at the top, followed by Alonso, Webber, Button, Alguersuari, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Heidfeld, and Liuzzi as the top ten. Still, Barrichello, Kubica, and Sutil had not set a time, until Barrichello went straight to eleventh with his first time. Ferrari also tweeted, “Loos like a problem with electronic management of the gearbox but we need to wait until the car is back in the pit.” Sutil was off to tenth with his first lap.

F1 Singapore FP1&2 Results and Report: Vettel Takes Charge in 2nd Practice After Webber Fastest in Slow, Damp FP1

What Happens When Singapore Doesn’t Dry Out Quickly

11:07am EST — It was Red Bull all the way in both Friday practices for the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix, with Mark Webber taking the lead as the circuit finally dried out after a typical late afternoon storm put standing water on the track an hour before the first practice. It was a topsy-turvy session, as Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock spent quite a bit of time on the top of the timesheets in the middle of the session. It was the second session that brought representative dry times, as Sebastian Vettel was the first and only driver into the 1:46s range, over a half second faster than his teammate Webber, who was second fastest, and a second or more faster than Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and the rest of the field. Alonso ended his session with twenty minutes to go when he went down an escape route (after being poised to set a very fast lap time) to avoid crashing and seemed to have stalled the car. According to Ferrari, “We need to wait until the car is brought back in the garage to understand what happened when Fernando was rejoining the track.”