60 laps of racing at Singapore was the perfect recipe to bring tensions to a peak in the WDC.
The high demands of racing at Singapore punished many drivers and
teams. With drinks bottles overheating, brakes being managed,
electrical gremlins, and strategies being pushed to and beyond the
limit, the last half of the race was fantastic.
Ferrari proved today that although they
now have two confident drivers, their cars are still unable to deliver
the performance required. They looked promising at first, but after
the safety car retreated they were unable to bring their tires back
to life in time to take advantage. It is such a shame as well, as
Raikkonen was very close to 5th place for several laps and
Alonso seemed to be within arm's reach of the podium.
Williams pushed their strategy one lap
too far for Bottas, and thus their lead over Ferrari in the WCC
remains a scant 9 points after Bottas was overtaken by 5 cars in
quick succession. Now that Ferrari are finally starting to find the
optimum setup, Williams will need to cover every contingency to
maintain 3rd place in the WCC.
Mclaren had a fantastic opportunity in
Singapore, but unfortunately they were unable to maintain 5th
in the WCC, with Force India thriving in the harsh conditions of
Singapore despite the contact between Perez and Sutil. Had Button remained in the race, he would have been one of
the five to capitalize on Williams' overshooting their tire strategy
and may have picked up a few additional points for his team.
Reliability problems hit home with a
sledgehammer for many teams. Sauber unfortunately suffered from a
double retirement following a clumsy incident from Sutil, Rosberg barely even started the race and retired
during an all too optimistic pit stop, and Kobayashi was unable to make
it to the grid.
Rosberg had much less to lose than Hamilton, but
clearly Mercedes need to take a serious look into their reliability.
They have been plagued with issues that have swung the WDC to and fro
when we all want to see the WDC decided purely by driver skill, not reliability. That aside, Hamilton's drive after the safety car
was one of his best of the entire season. Creating a pit stop sized
gap between himself and Daniel Ricciardo was simply incredible, and
on withering tires no less. Mercedes, despite being on what seemed at first to
be the wrong strategy after the safety car was deployed, still
made the best of the situation.
Japan will be a properly exciting race
with just 3 points separating Hamilton and Rosberg. Hopefully the
reliability issues are ironed out so we can see some WDC deciding
moments through the esses at Suzuka.
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