Typical Damon being late over the finish line as per usual. They have been blowing in all corners the whole way through the season. Listen out for the Caterhams as well since they are doing it as well and have been for quite a while. Sadly I think Damon missed those cars for the past couple of months.
Really looking tight at the top, looks like a Red Bull McLaren fight with Alonso somewhere in the middle.
Sector 3's slow corners followed by the Brazil-style run to the finish line, so I'd assume good rear grip. Webber's the next fastest in sector 3, as it happens.
Hamilton looks strong in S1 and S2, but for his off in his fast lap he'd be up there with Vettel (maybe not as quick, but not far off), stand by what I wrote earlier, looks like its Vettel Vs Hamilton this weekend..
0.6 is not good enough by Webber though if that's all he has got. He should really be equal to Hamilton in my opinion at this time. Sector 3 are the kind of corners Sebs driving style reigns supreme, thrash the **** out of the rear end!
Then why isn't he up like that every other sector then? If that was the case of a blown diffuser he would of been up on Sector one as well rather then 2 tenths down on both McLarens and Alonso..... Wouldn't it?
I expect to see Vettel or Hamilton on Pole tomorrow; with Alonso, Button and Webber close behind, in any order. Then Rosberg, who I think has an outside chance of a podium on Sunday (hence my bet at 10:1 in the gambling game!). I believe the most likely winner at this stage, to be Hamilton or Vettel. But I think it could get complicated… If an incident brings out the Safety Car at the wrong (or right) moment, it could be hugely disruptive. If it does happen, my gut feeling is that Red Bull will out-smart McLaren, whose occasionally ponderous thinking at critical moments could mess up either driver. On the other hand, I expect an incident free, dry race to favour Hamilton if he doesn't melt his tyres right off! Variable weather is a very real possibility, and is almost certainly what Button wants. Perez too – but I don't see him mixing it for victory this weekend. So, discounting fallout at the front, here's my contentious prediction: 1-2 Hamilton or Vettel 3-6 Alonso/Button/Webber/Rosberg perhaps? 7-11 Räikkönen/Grosjean/Massa/Perez/Schumacher. Amongst the midfielders, Schumacher almost certainly has the best car – which is why he may scrape into the top 10 – but once again, he is looking very untidy. Kobayashi also looks to be struggling. But if there is an incident up ahead, Schumacher could move up by default and get more than a single point. Maldonado is a wild card which could be placed anywhere between P5 and P12 Another driver looking out of place in F1 at the moment is Senna: even Karthikeyan's driving looks better! And at the tail end, Glock has a real chance to put Kovalainen's nose out of joint.
Cosi, any thoughts on the RBR alternator curse? It's my suspicion that it's something in the Red Bull design that causes it to go, or maybe Vettel throttling the car. With the extreme conditions in Singapore might this be a problem again?
Looking at the high fuel lap times, Hamilton and Button had big problems with tyre degradation. Vettel and Alonso didn't seem to have any tyre problems, but maybe that was because their stints were shorter. Anyway it's gives me a tiny bit of hope that Hamilton is beatable.
I have an issue with Helmets this weekend. 1) Hamilton's looks similar to buttons from a distance, it's going to be a nightmare to tell them apart 2) Whwat the hell was Vettel thinking? I sincerely hope it runs out of batteries during the race.
Nope*! I fail to understand why the problem was not an isolated incident, Max. Clearly there is a design fault and one would have expected this to have been picked up at an early stage. But they obviously didn't fix it! One can only guess as to whether they have now overcome this self-inflicted injury! *Afterthought. How about this then – an idea formed entirely in the moments since I read your question, and totally wild conjecture! It is my belief that Red Bull run a very light-weight KERS unit. I wonder if it is possible that this is somehow making extra demands upon the alternator? I admit to not having an intimate knowledge of Renault's KERSystem. One way to test it would be to run race distances without KERS but of course, without facility to test, they can't!
