2010 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX

Background

The Singapore Grand Prix was the fifteenth round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship after taking a two-week break from the previous race in Italy . The event was held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore , on 26 September 2010. The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each. The teams, also known as constructors , were McLaren , Mercedes , Red Bull , Ferrari , Williams , Renault , Force India , Toro Rosso , Lotus , Hispania , Sauber , and Vi...

Race

The Marina Bay Street Circuit was resurfaced between turns three and seven, along with turns thirteen to seventeen, after drivers complained about its bumpiness following the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix . The Singapore Sling chicane was adjusted to allow for a more gradual curve to exist which enabled a safer exit for drivers. The outside wall at turn 21 was brought closer towards the race track to cover up half of a drain which was previously exposed to cars, and the pit lane was re... There were two driver changes for the Grand Prix. Hispania Racing announced that Sakon Yamamoto , one of the team's drivers since the tenth race of the season, was to be replaced for the weekend by the team's reserve driver Christian Klien because he was suffering from food poisoning . Several journalists noticed a seemingly healthy Yamamoto in the paddock, suggesting that he had been dropped for sponsorship reasons instead. Team principal Colin Kolles confirmed that the arrangement would... Several teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. McLaren, Red Bull, and Williams all revised their front wings. McLaren's revision was designed to separate airflow into two separate channels, with both directing airflow around the outside of the car's front tyres. Red Bull's design, used in the Friday practice sessions, had two vertical slots to the rear of its endplate along with another to avoid creating a vortex when it operated with the planes and endplate.... Liuzzi pulled over to the inside of the circuit on the third lap, at turn ten, with left-rear suspension damage resulting from contact with the wall. His retirement triggered the deployment of the safety car as marshals were required to push his car away from the track. Webber was the only top running driver to pit for the medium compound tyres during the safety car period on lap four. Red Bull had told Webber to enter the pit lane, assuring him that it was the right decision... Vettel and Alonso traded fastest laps as they pushed hard in their efforts to build up a sufficient lead over Webber to maintain first and second positions after their pit stops. Massa, Petrov, Buemi and Alguersuari all passed Glock on lap 17 thus eliminating the queue of cars. By lap 20, Alonso was leading Vettel by 3.2 seconds; he, in turn, was a further 11 seconds in front of Hamilton. Button was in fourth, 20 seconds behind Alonso, with Rosberg 3.3 seconds behind the World Champ... Kobayashi attempted to pass around the outside of Schumacher on lap 31 but the two made contact with Schumacher subsequently hitting a barrier. Kobayashi damaged his Sauber, losing control of his rear-end, and crashed at the exit of turn 18 after his front wing was knocked off entering the corner. Senna was slow to react and buried his Hispania nose-first into the barrier alongside Kobayashi. These incidents called for the race's second safety car period to allow removal of both car... Upfront, Vettel had reduced the gap between himself and Alonso to one second by lap 50 as the pair continued to trade the fastest lap time. Glock started to slow on the circuit and drove to the pit lane to retire. It was later confirmed that his retirement was the result of an issue with his car's hydraulic system. With the advantage of having newer tyres which gave him more grip, Kubica passed Alguersuari, Buemi, his teammate Petrov, Massa, Hülkenberg, and Sutil (who ... Vettel drew to within two-tenths of a second behind Alonso as the final lap started, and came across Sutil, Hülkenberg, Petrov and Massa; both drivers managed to get past Petrov, and Alonso maintained the first position heading into the final sector of the track. The yellow flag for Kovalainen's car meant that Vettel's final chance of an overtake, into the final corner, was denied, and Alonso took the checkered flag on lap 61 to win the race, 0.293 seconds ahead of Vettel. Alonso se... The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Alonso said that his victory "meant a lot" for him to remain in contention for the Drivers' Championship and thanked his team for their efforts during the weekend. Alonso added that Ferrari would give "100 per cent" in the season's four remaining races and said the battle remained "very tight" despite scoring the most points out of all the drivers in the previous five... Alonso's win has been regarded as one of the best of his Formula One career. Former Formula One driver Martin Brundle described it as: "one of those races in which two drivers elevate themselves on to a separate plane from their rivals." It reminded him of the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix where Schumacher won that year's world championship from his main rival Mika Häkkinen . Will Saunders of crash.net said in 2014 that Alonso: "had little right to wrestle a performance of such m... The stewards immediately investigated the accident between Webber and Hamilton on lap 37 and took no further action. Hamilton later reviewed the incident on video and was adamant that he was not at fault saying that he was "unlucky" for the second consecutive Grand Prix. Webber stated the contact nearly forced him to retire and compared the accident to Hamilton's collision with Massa at the Italian Grand Prix. Brundle felt Hamilton should have given Webber more space and agr... Schumacher and Heidfeld's accident on lap 37 was investigated by the stewards who took no further action after deciding it was a "racing incident". Heidfeld felt Schumacher had braked too late and hoped that he would have had a better finishing position. Schumacher himself said that he was unhappy with his first race in Singapore but enjoyed the second half of the race. BBC pundit and former team principal, Eddie Jordan was highly critical of Schumacher arguing that the latt... Sutil was given a 20-second time penalty by the stewards as he was deemed to gain an advantage by taking the outside line at turn seven on the first lap. This demoted him from eighth to tenth and promoted Hülkenberg from ninth to eighth and Massa from tenth to ninth. Following a protest from Force India, Hülkenberg was issued a 20-second time penalty after the stewards deemed him to have gained an advantage by corner-cutting. This ruling demoted Hülkenberg to tenth while Massa moved to ei... Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold . Notes

Practice

Rain hit the circuit on Saturday afternoon, ending three hours before the session started, resulting in several damp patches on the circuit though the air temperature remained hot. Different sections of the circuit dried out at different rates making it difficult for drivers to tell precisely how wet or dry certain corners were. The teams ran intermediate tyres before switching to the super-soft tyre as the session progressed. Some drivers ran deep into turn five. Vettel was the fa...

Qualifying

Alguersuari, who qualified eleventh, was the fastest driver not advancing to the final session. His best time of 1:47.666 was 1.8 seconds slower than Vettel's pace in the second session. Alguersuari's time was followed by Hülkenberg, who was backed up by Sutil on his first run in the second session, and described his car's balance like "night and day". Hülkenberg was demoted five positions on the grid after the Williams team changed his gearbox after the race at Monza. As a ... The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold . Notes