With a little less than two months remaining in the 2017 Formula One season, the teams made their way to the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the 2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX. The weekend marked the 10th year for the event and resulted in a four year contract extension with the event organizers.
Lewis Hamilton set the pace early on during Friday’s first free practice session. Both Red Bull drivers eventually made their way to the top of the table before being split by the early favourite Sebastian Vettel. Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen struggled to set decent lap times and Lance Stroll broke down, requiring a gearbox change.
Red Bull was the team to beat again in the second free practice session on Friday afternoon, topping the time sheets. Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest lap, running more than 0.5 seconds ahead of his teammate. Mercedes were the closest rivals, with Ferrari having finished at the bottom of the top ten. Vettel was lucky to escape damage after brushing against the barrier and ripping down an advertisement. McLaren proved that they were able to perform well at a street circuit, finishing well within the top ten.
The Mercedes drivers struggled with the rear traction in the cars Saturday morning thanks to the changes made overnight. Red Bull led the third free practice session, although it was Max Verstappen at the top instead of Ricciardo, who had a brush with the barrier and finished outside of the top five. Vettel was the closest to Verstappen, lapping within 0.1 seconds of the Dutchman, while Räikkönen struggled to remain in the top ten. Hamilton was the next fastest, followed by the McLaren drivers who cemented their position firmly in the top ten.
Qualifying looked as though it would be Red Bull’s session to win. Max Verstappen led the first two qualifying sessions, on track to become the youngest driver to earn a pole position. However, he was beaten by Vettel in Q3, having to settle for a front row start. Mercedes proved to be slower than Red Bull and Ferrari around the streets of Singapore, with Hamilton and Bottas locking out the third row of the grid. Meanwhile, McLaren secured a position in the top ten.
On Sunday, rain hit the circuit to make the race the first ever wet race in Singapore’s 10 year history. The race started with a huge crash into turn one that took out Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and eventually Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa lost out big, missing the change to intermediate tyres and staying on the wet compound a little too long. Eventually, the track conditions improved enough to permit racing on the dry tyres. There was a total of three safety cars thanks to the first lap incident, a crash by Daniil Kvyat and a later crash by Marcus Ericsson.
At the end of the day, Hamilton was able to take the race victory and capitalize on the lack of competition from Ferrari. Hamilton now leads the World Drivers’ Championship by 28 points. Meanwhile, a series of crashes and mechanical failures resulted in only 12 finishers in the race.
The teams will now have two weeks to reflect on results of the race and perform the required setup changes for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the end of September. The race takes place at the Sepang International Circuit on the weekend of October 1.
