I never stop admiring the breath-taking venue of the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore. The atmosphere there seems so mesmerising, even watching it only on TV! The artificial lights, tens of thousands of multi-colour lamps and shining Formula 1 cars make the venue absolutely magical. Singapore is by far my favourite round on the F1 calendar!
Sebastian Vettel, my huge idol, has taken four poles in Singapore but this time the magic fell through. Although Ferrari seemed to be very close to Mercedes and Red Bull in terms of the pace, there was big drama in the first session. Unlucky Sebastian had a suspected broken front anti-roll bar on his Margherita. The German´s front wheel kept lifting off the ground and Sebastian wasn´t able to set a time good enough to go into Q2 but was left horribly in P22! I was so gutted and so sad for Sebastian, who will face a massive amount of work tomorrow trying to make his way through the field in the race! Red Bull´s Ricciardo was the fastest man in Q1 with Kimi second and Verstappen third. At this point Mercedes seemed to be struggling with their pace a bit, as Hamilton was "only" fourth and teammate Rosberg 8th. In addition to Sebastian, out of Q2 were the familiar names -Renault duo Magnussen and Palmer, Manor duo Wehrlein and Ocon and Sauber´s Nasr.
The tyre strategy in Q2 was interesting. The Mercedes drivers came out on the purple-marked ultrasoft tyres, whereas the Red Bull teammates opted for the red-marked supersoft compound. In spite of the different rubber, both Ricciardo and Verstappen set extremely competitive lap times, making it 3rd and 4th in the standings. Kimi made his first run on the ultrasoft rubber as well, but managed to make it only 5th. The five frontrunners (Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen and Räikkönen) sat out the second runs. Grosjean in his Haas, who had suffered from brake problems the entire weekend, put his Haas sideways on into the barriers in Turn 10, when there was only less than a minute remaining. Easing off for the resulting yellow flags, neither Williams got through to the final session. Bottas ended up the first faller in Q2. Teammate Massa was left 12th. It remains to be seen, whether there will be any actions after the stewards have investigated some improvements under the yellows, notably after Force India´s Perez jumped to 9th after overtaking Haas´ Gutierrez.
Q3 was delayed by 10 minutes as the plastic barriers in Turn 10 needed to be fixed. Rosberg and Hamilton set the initial pace, but after the first attempts Hamilton was surprising 7 tenths down on his teammate. Kimi made a superb first run, and the Iceman was third, 9 tenths off Rosberg. In the end Hamilton was unable to challenge his teammate for pole, on the contrary, the Briton tried too much on his second flyer and made small mistakes here and there. All he could do was to make it 3rd this time. Red Bull´s Ricciardo on the other hand, managed to improve his lap time in the end -making it on the front row alongside Rosberg! Verstappen had been absolutely flying at Marina Bay in the free practice sessions, but in the qualifying the Dutchman couldn´t quite nail it. The Red Bull teenager had to settle for P4, which left a little to hope for. To my disappointment Kimi fell fifth in the closing moments of the last segment. To be honest, I was hoping to see Ferrari to be more competitive. Toro Rosso, on the contrary, made stunning job, as Sainz qualified 6th and teammate Kvyat 7th. Hulkenberg was 8th, Alonso impressively 9th and Perez 10th.
The start will be thrilling especially due to the tyre strategy. Rosberg on pole will start to the race on the ultrasoft tyres, whereas Ricciardo in P2 and Verstappen in P4 will start on the more durable supersoft rubber. Once again, Kimi and Verstappen are frighteningly close to each other on the grid... I´m crossing my fingers that there won´t be any incidents in the first corner! The probability of safety car is extremely high, so the timing of the pit stops plays a crucial role in tomorrow´s race as well. It remains to be seen, what Sebastian will be able to do from the back of the grid... Hopefully the suspension problem can be fixed overnight!
In the last free practice session this morning there was a surprising and even a bit funny moment, as a giant lizard suddenly emerged on track! Verstappen reported on the team radio about the lizard, which wisely waited for Max to drive pass until it crossed the track. The lizard must have heard about Max´s aggressive driving style, so it was wise enough to wait, hahahahaha :D The team joked about Max encountering Godzilla ;) Hopefully there won´t be any lizards on track tomorrow, however! I´m hoping to see a magical race with lots of success for my three favourites!
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