Sunday, September 28, 2008

Renault driver Fernando Alonso won the FIA 2008 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix on the street circuit at Marina Bay, Singapore.

This was the first nightly Formula One event that utilized artificial lighting and the 800th Formula One World Championship race overall. The previous GP at Singapore held in 1973 was not part of the Formula One.

The first part of the race saw the crucial failure of Alonso’s teammate Nelson Piquet Jr., causing a safety car to appear, mixing up the drivers.

Nico Rosberg (Williams–Toyota) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) were forced to pit while the entrance to the boxes was closed. This became both good and bad news, causing these drivers to gain a number of positions, but later lose some of them on a stop-and-go penalty. Still Nico maintained his second position up to the finish line.

Pole-sitter Felipe Massa (Ferrari) made a mistake upon exiting from a pit-stop due to the error of an electronic system used by Ferrari to control the pit-stop instead the ordinary lollipop. He made his way to the opposite end of the pit lane with a tail of the fuel hose fragment. It took time for the pit crew to run down his car and release Massa, who now became last from his first starting position. Later he was penalized by a drive-through penalty for this incident, which did not adversely affect him.

The other way round, safety car finally lead Alonso to victory gaining 14 places from the start, which he earned after an unsuccessful second qualification session.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren–Mercedes) pushed hard on Rosberg trying to regain his second starting position, but finally came third.

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) suffered an accident with five laps to go trying to overtake Timo Glock‘s Toyota and was out of the race. Glock finished fourth.

This allowed Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari), the previous race triumphant, to gain one position and finish fifth.

Top eight was closed by Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber),David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota).

In the Drivers’s standings, Lewis Hamilton extends his lead over Felipe Massa up to seven points and to twenty points over Robert Kubica. McLaren is now one point ahead of Ferrari and fifteen over BMW Sauber in the Constructors’ Championship.