Singapore GP: Vettel 1 point away from the title!

I had huge expectations before the Singapore grand prix. The circumstances where the F1 action took place were absolutely staggering! All those fantastic buildings lighted in different colors in the dark night of Singapore made the venue just perfect. Nevertheless the race wasn´t as entertaining as it could have been... Don´t get me wrong, it was the 9th win of the season for Super Sebastian and I enjoyed every glorious moment of it!

The atmosphere was palpable when the lights went off. Vettel had another successful start and was able to pull away quite easily. Webber´s streak of bad starts continued and he lost positions to both Button and Alonso. What made the race less entertaining than for example the Italian GP two weeks ago was the lack of intense wheel-to-wheel battle! Vettel was able to pull out a huge gap to his rivals very quickly. Webber had some battle with Alonso once again but nothing huge.

I have to admit that I hoped Hamilton to be able to challenge Button and Webber for the 2nd place! Usually I´m not that big fan of the Briton but this hope was based on Vettel´s chance to clinch the second world title... If Vettel was going to win the race, neither Button nor Webber should finish 2nd and Alonso shouldn´t be among the top three... But it seemed Button was going to ruin my hopes! And Hamilton ruined his race just by himself - once again! He crashed to Massa and damaged his front wing and Massa got a puncture due to the crash and both had to pit... And in additon to that Hamilton got a drive through penalty due to causing the collision!

On lap 30 Vettel had pulled out a gap of about 20 seconds to Button when Schumacher crashed to Perez in his Sauber. It seemed to be some kind of a misunderstanding; Schumi didn´t expect Perez to break so early. Schumi ended up to the wall and his race was over. The incident caused safety car to come out and Vettel lost his advantage. But after the re-start he was able to disappear to the horizon once again. At the end of the race Button closed the gap quite massively and at the chequered flag the gap was less than 2 seconds! But what mattered most was that Vettel was there first! :)

Singapore GP / Qualifying: Super Sebastian flies to 11th pole of the season!

Sebastian Vettel, do You have any idea how massively difficult You make my blog writing by being too awesome for words?!? You make Your performance better and better every race weekend though it has been absolutely perfect since the start of the season... It´s sooo hard to find words or expressions which would actually tell how You make me dumbfounded every time You snatch another pole or take another win!

The qualifying in the dark night of Singapore was totally a Sebastian Vettel show! No one else could even come close to his lap time! No surprises in terms of Q3. The top 5 teams today were Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes GP and Force India. Sauber´s Perez was pretty close to make his way into Q3 but didn´t quite make it after all. Kobayashi in his Sauber on the other hand crashed in Q2 after cutting the kerbs aggressively in a chicane and there was red flag for a short while.

Button´s performance was strong today. Not strong enough to beat the Red Bulls as the pole was taken by Super Sebastian and Webber made it a front row lock-out for Red Bull by taking the 2nd place! But Button qualified 3rd ahead of his team-mate Hamilton. McLaren had some kind of a fuelling problem with Hamilton´s car so he was unable to do the second run in Q3 but due to that he saved a set of tyres for tomorrow´s race. The Ferrari drivers Alonso and Massa finished 5th and 6th.

What was very disappointing for me to see was that there were three drivers who didn´t drive in Q3 at all: Schumacher in his Mercedes as well as both Force India drivers. The fans and spectators would love to see the drivers on the track so in my opinion it´s absolutely disappointing that they´re allowed to make the decision not to run at all. If I´m asked, there should be enough tyres for the race so that saving the tyres wouldn´t be necessary for the teams. Or there should be regulations that would make it compulsory for the teams to do at least one run in each qualifying session... At least I would love to see all the drivers on the track fighting for the best position they can reach!

I absolutely can´t wait for tomorrow´s race! I would love to see Super Sebastian to clinch his second world title tomorrow!! I know I shouldn´t be thinking about that, because it doesn´t necessarily happen tomorrow. I know it´ll happen sooner or later but not necessarily tomorrow. However, I´ll be prepared to bake a cake in a couple of days ;) I´ve promised my colleagues at work that I´ll bake them a cake if/when Vettel wins the world championship this season. I did it also last year so this baking thing seems to become a habit, hahaha ;D I´ve ordered an eatable picture of Seb in his RB7 which I´ll put on top of the cake... Just can´t wait to get started!

Italian GP: DRS makes overtaking too easy... or does it?

I have to say the Italian GP was one of the most thrilling and entertaining races this season so far! The start was absolutely action-packed with Alonso getting a superb start and making his way to the lead! My heart was pounding as there were three cars (Vettel, Alonso and Schumacher) side by side going to the turn 1! And what a huge crash took place at turn 1 when HRT´s Liuzzi lost control of his car and hit both Rosberg and Petrov taking them both out of the race. The incident caused tha safety car to come out.

After the restart Vettel was able to overtake Alonso and take the lead back! Although Alonso didn´t give very much room for Vettel which caused him to go a bit wide Vettel managed to overtake the Ferrari driver :) And what´s remarkable about it is that Vettel did it without using the DRS! There has been a lot of talking this season that the DRS makes overtaking even too easy but this certainly wasn´t the case today! Super Sebastian didn´t even need it to get past Alonso!

The battle between Schumacher and Hamilton was highly entertaining and exciting to watch! Mercedes GP had very high straight line speed so despite using the DRS Hamilton wasn´t able to get past Schumacher. Instead his team-mate Button recovered from a lousy start and managed to catch those two. It was impressive how Button managed to overtake his team-mate and how easily he overtook Schumacher right after that! But overtaking wasn´t easy today, that´s for sure.

After Vettel had taken the lead he cruised to a sweeping victory! Although he had the lowest straight line speed yesterday at qualifying he disappeared to the horizon very quickly and was totally untouchable. They said that the secret behind his unbelievable speed was the gear ratio that he used in his RB7. I have to say I was absolutely dumbfounded by Vettel´s driving today (again), there was something absolutely magical about it! No body had absolutely no chance to catch Vettel but behind him there was intense battle for positions.

Button finished 2nd behind Vettel and Alonso came 3rd in front of his home crowd. Hamilton managed to catch Alonso at the end of the race but wasn´t quite able to overtake him. Schumacher drove a strong race and was 5th in the final standings. But what about Webber in his competitive RB7? He hit Massa at the beginning of the race and damaged his front wing which caused him to crash the barriers a bit later and retire. Bruno Senna grabbed his very first points by finishing 9th.

Italian GP / Qualifying: There´s no stopping of Super Sebastian!

There was an illusion floating in the air before the qualifying that it was going to be very close a battle for pole this afternoon at Monza. I mean it was supposed to be... But the qualifying turned out to be a one man show, not a one team show but... a mesmerising Super Sebastian show!!

No real surprises or big disappointments today in terms of Q3. There were the drivers of the top 5 teams at the moment: the Red Bulls, the McLarens, the Ferraris, the Mercedes drivers and the Renault duo. Even Bruno Senna managed to make his way into Q3 which was maybe a bit unpredictable. I knew both Button and Hamilton were going to be highly competitive at Monza which is known for its long straights. I was sure if there was going to be some other than a Red Bull driver on pole this season it was definitely going to happen at Monza... But that wasn´t the case!

The German Red Bull ace was just unbelievable and utterly unstoppable today: at the end of the day he outqualified the McLarens by nearly half a second! On the track that wasn´t supposed to suit the Red Bulls at all... It was definitely a lap too awesome for words! Unlike Vettel´s team-mate Webber who didn´t have the most perfect Q3 and he finally qualified 5th. And thinking about the starts that Webber has taken earlier this season the 5th spot on the grid doesn´t seem very promising. The pecking order seems quite obvious: first there´s Super Sebastian in a class of his own, then there´re the McLaren drivers and then the Ferraris... On a very lucky day the Mercedes drivers (especially Nico) or either of the Renault drivers may be able to challenge the top teams but unfortunately either Mercedes GP or Renault isn´t at their level yet. Like today´s qualifying result proves: Vettel on pole, Hamilton 2nd, Button 3rd, Alonso 4th, Webber 5th and Massa 6th.

Both Hamilton and Button admitted at the post-qualifying press conference that Vettel was untouchable today. Button aborted his final flying lap though the split times showed improvement in his lap time. But for sure he wouldn´t have been able to improve his time so much that he could have threatened Vettel´s time! But as far as the race tomorrow is concerned I´m sure we´re going to see an absolutely impressive show! McLaren´s race pace is extremely convincing so for sure both Hamilton and Button will challenge Vettel seriously for the victory...!

So it´s 10th pole of the season for Super Sebastian! How on Earth am I able to describe his driving any more...? I mean it sounds fair to say that he is good. He´s extremely talented. Super fast. Unstoppable. Out of anybody else´s reach. He rarely makes any mistakes and when he does he learns from them and doesn´t repeat them. He dominates qualifying sessions and is clearly superior to his rivals in terms of performance. But this all sounds so dilute... I guess all I can really say is that not only in terms of his performance but also in terms of describing his driving the man is completely out of reach! Absolutely amazing. He impresses me completely every time he drives!

Belgian GP: An epic 1-2 for Red Bull!

Against all odds the Belgian GP was driven in dry conditions! But I have to say it was a hugely exciting race also without the weather factor. I knew Vettel on pole was going to take a superb start but I was certainly worried about his front tyres... They were blistered from yesterday´s qualifying and that wasn´t a good sign!

I was absolutely right: Vettel took a wonderful start! Unlike his team-mate Webber who had another lousy start costing him many positions... Mercedes GP´s Nico Rosberg who started 5th on the grid had an unbelievable start and he managed to take the lead from Vettel! The turn 1 was a complete mess, Jenson Button for example lost a part of his rear wing in the middle of it... The Toro Rossos collided with each other which lead to Alguersuari´s early retirement.

Luckily Vettel was able to retake the lead from Rosberg and it wasn´t the only time Vettel overtook his rivals today! Who says that Vettel can´t overtake on the track? Today at least the German ace proved all the sceptics wrong! And before the summer break there was a lot of talking about Vettel cracking under the pressure... No sign of that today (or before...)! I absolutely enjoyed watching Vettel overtaking Alonso in Ferrari and his team-mate Webber, there was no stopping him today!

There clearly was an issue with the tyres. Especially the first stint was extremely short and even the new set of the soft tyres got blistered quite quickly. Alonso had also a similar issue with the tyres and with the option tyres on he was conspicuously slow and lost many positions at the end of the race!

Button´s performance today was absolutely fantastic! Unlike his team-mate Hamilton who hit Kobayashi´s car and crashed into the barriers on lap 13. That caused the safety car to come on the track. Button started 13th on the grid due to the misunderstanding at the qualifying yesterday and the beginning of the race didn´t look so good for him... After the safety car came in he was in spot 11. But Button´s McLaren seemed to work perfectly and he was extremely fast and could catch his rivals easily... Button was able to overtake Alonso easily and managed to snatch the last podium spot at Spa!

In spite of the bad start and a problem with the radio communication Webber finished 2nd today and with Vettel winning his 7th race of the season it was an outstanding 1-2 for Red Bull at Spa :) Despite all the talks that Spa-Francorchamps doesn´t suit Red Bull the RB7 was utterly invincible today! Which obviously means scary things for those trying to catch Vettel... He has a 92-point lead when going to Monza in two weeks! And the 259 points he has at the moment has already exceeded the title-winning points Vettel scored last year and there´re 7 more rounds to go! Absolutely crushing performance!

Though qualifying was a huge disappointment for Schumi he had a very decent race! I mean starting from P24 and finishing 5th is a superb achievement indeed and a nice way to celebrate his 20th anniversary! He had close wheel-to-wheel battle with his team-mate Rosberg and managed to overtake Nico after all... On TV we heard a team radio call to Nico where he was told to save fuel... Team orders or not, both Mercedes GP drivers had an excellent race!

Belgian GP / Qualifying: Surprises and disappointments at a rain-hit session!

First of all I have to say I´m absolutely delighted that the looong summer break of F1 is finally over! I´ve missed dearly all the F1 action during the four-week break! I knew there was going to be a lot of action at Spa Francorchamps where the weather is always a big question mark!

I guess everybody expected to see an impressive performance from Michael Schumacher who made his F1 debut at Spa exactly 20 years ago! An utterly outstanding achievement indeed! But Schumi´s anniversary weekend got a poor start as he couldn´t set a time at the beginning of Q1 due to a technical failure. So Schumi was out of the quali due to no fault of his own -what a shame! He seemed very competitive in the wet conditions on the ground of what we saw at the free practices. But he´ll be allowed to race in spite of not setting a time within the 107 percent time. So hope he´ll have a good race tomorrow!

Another surprise was that McLaren´s Jenson Button didn´t make it through to Q3! Button himself explained it was a question of some misunderstanding... Which shouldn´t happen at this level! Button would have made it to the Q3 without any doubt if only had he been on the track at the end of the Q2 when the lap times where improving lap by lap as the track turned drier and drier... So Button will be 13th on the grid tomorrow which will make Button´s race a bit more difficult... But if the weather will be mixed like today; I´m sure it´ll favour Button who has been extremely good in mixed conditions.

To be honest, I have to say I didn´t expect ANYTHING from Bruno Senna who replaced Nick Heidfeld at Renault this weekend. And although Senna hit the wall at FP1on Friday, otherwise his performance has been impressive indeed! Today he qualified 7th just ahead of Ferrari´s Alonso while his team-mate Petrov was 10th.

Sebastian Vettel snatched the pole once again! It was the 9th pole for the German ace this season! What can you say, the super talented Red Bull driver seems to be in a class of his own! His performance didn´t seem very strong especially in Q1 but there´s something absolutely astonishing about Vettel... Every time you start thinking that he may not be at his very best today, he manages to set the perfect lap! Hamilton took the 2nd spot and Vettel´s team-mate Webber was 3rd. The second half of the season couldn´t have started any better!!

Lewis Hamilton always seems to be in the limelight when there´s intense action on the track... So was the case today aswell! At the end of Q2 when Hamilton was on his flying lap he passed Maldonado in his Williams not to lose time which lead to the wheels of Hamilton´s car touching those of Maldonado´s Williams. For me it looked very clean incident, Hamilton was just trying to set as fast lap time as possible! But soon after that Maldonado hit Hamilton´s car so that Hamilton´s front wing and side-pod was damaged! Maldonado´s car got some damage aswell. That was absolutely  outrageous!! Maldonado had NO REASON to do so! Maldonado has been given a five-place grid penalty for his action, which absolutely isn´t a penalty hard enough if I´m asked! Maldonado did it deliberately so he should be excluded from the race totally. What I don´t understand is why Hamilton was also reprimanded due to the incident...

And why the 107 percent rule breakers are allowed to race tomorrow? Meaning D´Ambrosio, Liuzzi and Ricciardo.. It´s understandable that Schumi is allowed to race as it was a question of a technical failure but as far as these three other drivers are concerned, they were simply unable to set a lap time fast enough! Why does the 107 percent rule even exist when it has absolutely no meaning whatsoever?

ADAC Rallye Deutschland: Ogier put an end to Loeb´s winning streak in Germany!

I have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms for not writing a blog post for several weeks! So I´m glad the Rallye Deutschland came to make my day! What were my expectations before the rally got underway? I was convinced that it would be the 9th consecutive victory in Germany for absolutely dominant Loeb who has obviously been in a class of his own for several years... However, I turned out to be wrong!

In terms of the factory Fords, almost everything went wrong since the beginning of the rally... Latvala had a very promising start to the event by making the fastest time on the stage 1 but then the problems hit. Team Ford made the wrong tyre call by choosing the harder compound of tyres because they were expecting the conditions to be dry. Instead it was raining right before the stage 2 and the Ford drivers Latvala and Hirvonen lost a lot of time on the slippery roads. The French Citroen drivers instead had a soft-compound version on their cars and they managed to pull a significant gap to their rivals! And the wrong tyre call was just a beginning of a series of difficulties faced by the factory Fords... Punctures (Latvala alone had four punctures during the rally!) and near-miss situations cost the Finnish Ford drivers dearly!

The real talking point during the weekend, however, was the relationship between the Citroen´s two drivers. Loeb was leading the rally after day one by only a few seconds over his team-mate Ogier and Ogier seemed very tight-lipped and annoyed about something... And it became clear soon that Citroen had given team orders to maintain the positions of their two drivers meaning that Ogier wasn´t allowed to take the lead from his team-mate... Once again I was sooo disappointed! Sports, also motorsports, should be about competing against your rivals including your team-mate! I can´t help thinking about Loeb´s new two-year contract with Citroen if it´s partly based on him being the number one driver in the team... I hope I´m wrong! In my eyes the 7-time world champion Sebastien Loeb is so an outstanding driver that he wouldn´t need to use means like that to secure his position inside the team! Though Ogier is clearly a serious threat...

In addition to all the technical failures Latvala also suffered from some kind of a stomach bug! As if all the technical stuff wouldn´t have been enough...! In spite of the team orders Loeb didn´t win in Germany! He suffered a puncture on Saturday and lost over a minute because of it which enabled Ogier to snatch the lead! So it was the first tarmac-win for Ogier leaving Loeb 2nd! But what was brilliant was the performance of the two MINI drivers! Sordo managed to snatch the last podium spot leaving Hirvonen 4th.

I was satisfied to see Kimi´s performance in Germany -although the man himself stated it would have been a better idea for him to have stayed at home! Kimi had a peculiar problem with his door flapping after he had touched a wall. But he did set some very competitive stage times and I´m sure he would have done much better on the power stage if he hadn´t had another puncture! I´m kind of sad to read that he´ll skip the Rally Australia! I love watching and following WRC but it´s definitely Kimi who brings the extra excitement to the sports...!