2008 Singapore Grand Prix

The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix , formally known as the 2008 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix , was a Formula One race held on 28 September 2008 at 20:00 SST at the newly built Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay , Singapore. It was the 15th race of the 2008 Formula One World Championship , the 800th Formula One World Championship race overall, and the first ever Formula One race held at night. This was also the first time Singapore hosted a Formula One race, as the last Singapore Grand ...

Alonso, who had pitted before the safety car was deployed, subsequently took the lead and won the race. Nico Rosberg managed to finish second despite incurring a stop-go penalty and Hamilton completed the podium in third. Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard finished 7th, scoring the final points of his career. Kazuki Nakajima also scored his final points. The result saw Hamilton extend his lead in the Driver's standings to 7 points over Massa, who failed to score. McLaren also took over the lead i...

In September 2009, Renault F1 admitted in an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting that Piquet had deliberately crashed per instructions from Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds in the hope of helping Alonso win. The Renault team were handed a disqualification from Formula One, which was suspended for two years pending any further rule infringements. Briatore was banned from all FIA-sanctioned events for life, while Symonds was banned for five years. [ 1 ] Briat...

In early 2007, talks of staging a Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore began, with the focus on arranging this to be a night race in order to cater Formula One's audience in Europe. [ 4 ] The race was approved in May [ 5 ] and construction for the grand prix complex began in August 2007. [ 6 ] The lighting system consisted of nearly 1600 light projectors, separated by four meters and suspended 10 meters above the track. The system generated a total of 3000 lux intensity, approximately four times ...

I think first of all the car was just perfect, you know, so nice to drive smoothly and then I managed to do a perfect lap and that always helps when you have a good car and you don't make any single mistakes in whatever corner you go. That is always a great achievement.

Massa took the pole position in the final session, with Hamilton, Räikkönen and Kubica completing first two rows of the grid. Massa secured his position by clocking lap time six-tenths faster than Hamilton, describing it as his best qualifying result of the season. [ 23 ] Kovalainen, managing fifth position, rued his tyre selections in the final session. [ 26 ] Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Vettel and Glock occupied the third and fourth rows of the grid while the Williams' of Rosberg and Nakajima comple...

After ten laps, Massa had built up a lead of over three seconds to Hamilton and Räikkönen was a further seven seconds behind Hamilton. On lap twelve, Alonso was the first driver who came into the pits. [ 28 ] He switched his super-soft tyres for the soft compound tyres and rejoined at the back of the field. Two laps later, teammate Piquet lost control of his car and hit the wall at Turn 17 , blaming his hard tyres for the accident. [ 29 ] This resulted in the first safety car period of the race....

In the pits, Ferrari prematurely released Massa with the fuel hose still attached to the car. The Brazilian was also released into the path of Adrian Sutil, who narrowly avoided the Ferrari. Massa went the full length of the pitlane before stopping just before the exit. Massa rejoined at the back of the field after the Ferrari mechanics ran down the pitlane and removed the hose from the car. Cars who had either pitted before the safety car or were on one stop strategies were now in front. Rosber...

Rosberg started to pull away from the heavily fuelled Trulli and Fisichella's Force India , who held up most of the field behind him. In the next few laps, Felipe Massa was given a drive through penalty for an unsafe release from the pits while Rosberg and Kubica were given 10 second stop-go penalties for refuelling when the pitlane was closed. The Ferrari driver served his penalty and rejoined the track still in last place. Kubica came into the pits from fourth and dropped behind Massa. After b...

A lap later, Fisichella came in from second to make his only pit stop, moving Alonso and Rosberg into second and third. Trulli led the race for four more laps before making his only stop of the night, handing the lead to Alonso. He soon pulled away from Rosberg who pitted from second on lap 41, rejoining in seventh. Alonso made his final stop a lap later but still rejoined in the lead, just ahead of second and third placed Coulthard and Hamilton. Coulthard lost momentum and the McLaren overtook ...

Mark Webber retired on lap 29 with a gearbox issue. His team Red Bull Racing later claimed that a momentary electrical surge caused by a passing underground tram made the gearbox select two gears at once. The incident occurred in Turn 13. A tram line goes right underneath that section of the race track. [ 31 ] These allegations were later denied by the city-state's railway operator. [ 32 ]

A first podium of the season and first victory as well and I am extremely happy. I cannot believe it right now, I think I need a couple of days to realise we won a race this year. It seems impossible all through the season to be close to the top guys and here suddenly we have been competitive from Friday. Obviously we started at the back and the first safety car helped me a lot and I was able to win the race.

Fernando Alonso credited his success to the team's strategy and bit of luck. He said that the team chose a two-stop strategy with a short initial stint as opposed to a one-stop strategy, considering the difficulties of overtaking on the track and possibility of brake problems. [ 34 ] Nico Rosberg was pleased with his career best result, [ 34 ] although he recalled when he thought his efforts for a good finish might have been in vain after being given a stop-and-go penalty. He mentioned that he h...

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said that the reason for Massa's pit incident was not the electronic signalling system but a human error. He defended the electronic system saying that the system saves any reaction time for the driver as opposed to a standard "lollipop" system, and considering it was a human error, the incident may have happened with a lollipop as well. [ 36 ]

Toyota filed a protest against Toro Rosso for releasing Sebastian Vettel in Timo Glock's path during their first pit stops under the safety car; [ 37 ] however, the stewards rejected Toyota's plea. [ 38 ]

In the Drivers' Championship , Lewis Hamilton's third place moved him seven points clear of Felipe Massa on 84 points. With both Ferrari drivers failing to score, McLaren took over the lead in the Constructors' Championship on 135 points. Fernando Alonso's victory meant that Renault overtook Toyota for fourth place in the constructors standings. [ 10 ]

The international media and many of those directly involved in Formula One praised the staging of the SingTel Singapore Grand Prix highly. Fears which were previously expressed about the weather, visibility, and narrow nature of the circuit itself all proved unfounded. Organisation of the event itself was widely deemed to be impeccable as the ushering, transport, and security services all ran like clockwork. The drivers complained about how bumpy the track was, particularly off the racing line, ...

Formula One's then-commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone heralded the Singapore Grand Prix as the "new jewel in the Formula One sports crown", a phrase often used to describe the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. [ 40 ] [ 41 ] He described Singapore as an example to follow and would make people reconsider their opinions of Asia. [ 42 ]

For years I've been saying go East, not West. When you think about it, most parts of Asia where people have visited, they sort of put everything in one basket – 'Singapore is the same as India, Malaysia and Thailand'. That's how they feel because they don't know any better. Hopefully this will open people's eyes and they'll say, my God, Singapore really is alive and well.

— Commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone [ 43 ]

Several other prominent Formula One personalities were quoted as saying:

— Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo [ 47 ]

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