P4 for Nico and a DNF for Lewis to end a difficult weekend in Singapore. After good starts from both drivers, Lewis and Nico managed to maintain position, running P5 and P6 until the first round of pit-stops. Both cars then managed to jump a place after pitting on lap 13 under the VSC, both changing to prime tyres. On lap 26, Lewis suffered a loss of power which couldn't be resolved, forcing him down the field and leading to his retirement on lap 32. Lewis' problem was diagnosed as a loss of boost pressure caused by the failure of a clamp between the intercooler and plenum. Both cars ran option then prime for the opening two stints, with Nico opting for prime tyres again at his second stop under the final Safety Car period owing to the number of laps remaining in the race.
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: I think that is what's termed a character-building weekend. Given our pace and the way the race unfolded, P4 was the maximum we could expect today with Nico. On Lewis' side, we tried everything we could to resolve the loss of power while he was out on track but there was nothing we could do and we retired the car when that became clear. He lost valuable points today. Ever since we put the car on track on Friday morning, we were on the back foot and it only improved a little today. There were times in the race when the pace looked okay but the guys in front were managing their tyres, too, so we must be realistic about our level of performance at this circuit. Now we need to analyse everything precisely, understand the wrong turn that we took this weekend to learn the right lessons - and then close this chapter. One bad weekend doesn't overshadow our achievements so far this year but we know that there is no room for complacency after a weekend like this. We will aim to hit back strongly next weekend in Suzuka.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): We clearly did not put ourselves in the strongest position during qualifying yesterday, starting from the third row, and it proved to be a long and painful race. It was a case of damage limitation for Nico who salvaged P4 today and didn't put a foot wrong. For Lewis, he suffered a technical problem that meant he was not getting full power, and we couldn't solve that while he was out on track. It was difficult to understand the pace during the race because the leading cars were controlling strongly their pace to make a two-stop strategy work. All attempts to find something different with the strategy that could have given us an opportunity were thwarted by the two Safety Car periods, which fell into a perfect two-stop window. We will do our analysis to understand the problems we faced this weekend, and then aim to bounce back strongly in Japan.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A great performance by Daniel today in what was our most competitive weekend of the year. He pushed all the way from start to finish, but he was a bit unlucky with the Safety Cars. Our pace was better during the last part of the stints than the Ferrari, and the Safety Cars came at the right time to give Ferrari and Sebastian a bit of a breather. But nonetheless, a fantastic performance to finish second. Dany was unlucky with the timing of both the Virtual Safety Car and the Safety Car itself, which cost him places to both Rosberg and Bottas through no fault of his own. But a good collection of points for the team as we head into Japan. Congratulations to Sebastian, both he and Daniel were in a league of their own today."
Matthieu Dubois, Renault: "After a very long two hours, we are all glad to see four Renault cars in the points. It was a great second place for Daniel, who kept everything under control as the race took different turns. Unfortunately for Daniil we pitted twice just seconds before the safety cars and lost out to Mercedes and Bottas in the operation. It is nice to see our hard work is starting to bear fruit from both reliability and performance perspectives and we are very much looking forward to prove it again next Sunday in Japan."
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Valtteri Bottas finished the Singapore Grand Prix in fifth place, while team mate Felipe Massa was forced to retire. Valtteri moved ahead of Kvyat during the final round of pitstops and comfortably held fifth position to the finish. Felipe had to make an extra pit stop due to a slow puncture following contact from Hulkenberg's Force India. He later retired with a gearbox problem.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was an excellent race for Valtteri today. He showed great pace and the gap from qualifying disappeared, so we were fighting with Kvyat and Rosberg throughout the race. We made good strategic calls, when Kvyat pitted we stayed out knowing a safety car could come at any time, and we got ahead of him. Felipe getting tangled up with Hulkenberg, who subsequently received a penalty, was unfortunate and put us on the back foot with that car. His retirement was a gearbox problem, the car was jumping out of gear so we need to investigate that. I'm happy with the day but it's tinged with disappointment because we've lost some points with Felipe's car.
Maurizio Arrivabene: "This is a fantastic win! It's fantastic for Seb, who yesterday put in an awesome qualifying lap, something which reminded me of the great champions of the past. But this result is also fantastic for the whole team, for all the guys here in the Singapore garage, and also for those who work back at Maranello. Kimi's third place today clearly shows how important and effective was the development work we carried out on our car. Today we have both drivers on the podium and we're happy with that. And yet, I was not sure that we could make it until we crossed the finish line. A race win is something you build step by step, from the start onwards: and on a track like this, full of unpredictables, and with two safety car periods, the real problem was keeping concentration. Now I don't want to make predictions for the championship: there are still may points at stake, and obviously we'll do all that's in our power to stay in front. But always with great humility and a huge respect for other contenders."
Eric Boullier, Racing director, McLaren-Honda: "Our cars showed encouraging race pace today, Fernando's best lap only 1.1s slower than Daniel's [Ricciardo] fastest lap of the race, despite Fernando's lap-time having been set with quite a lot of fuel still on board.
"However, today is of course a disappointing day for all at McLaren-Honda, since we were forced to retire both our cars before the finish with gearbox issues. We'll investigate the cause or causes of those issues, in an effort to make sure they never recur.
"From here we'll travel to Suzuka, one of the greatest racetracks on the Formula 1 calendar, the home Grand Prix of our engine partner Honda, whose power units performed with admirable reliability throughout the past three days here in Singapore."
Yasuhisa Arai, Honda R&D senior managing officer - chief officer of motorsport: "At the beginning of the race, our pace was good, and we had hopes for a double points score. However, both cars had to retire due to gearbox issues.
"It was a disappointing result, because our set-up became better as the weekend progressed.
"As today's race was a back-to-back race with Suzuka, we don't have much time, but we'll gather whatever data possible from today, fix the problems, and prepare for our home Grand Prix."
Sahara Force India scored six points in the Singapore Grand Prix: Sergio Perez finished in seventh place while teammate Nico Hulkenberg retired after contact with Felipe Massa.
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: "Another bittersweet race in which we weren't able to get the reward the pace of both drivers should have warranted. Checo was brilliant: he was smooth in attacking and didn't put a wheel wrong when defending. The ending of the race was a bit nerve-wracking, with Checo coming under intense pressure from Verstappen, but he was able to play on the strengths of his car and didn't allow for any overtaking opportunity to arise. Nico had excellent pace but he didn't get the chance to show it. He was ahead of Felipe coming into the corner, took the line he was expected to take and yet Felipe didn't back out until it was too late. We are surprised a penalty was given to Nico, especially considering that he was the one who ended up out of the race and with severe damage to the car. We're even more surprised the drivers weren't called to the stewards' room to give their view on the events. In any case, tonight's result strengthens our fifth position in the championship. We managed to increase our advantage over the teams behind us and we will aim to continue in this fashion next weekend in Japan."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "The beginning of the race was quite a big shock, as Max stalled the engine and could not start the race from his well-deserved P8 on the grid. We have to find out what happened, because the anti-stall should have prevented this from happening. We were lucky with the Safety Car, and Max was able to catch-up after being a lap down. He drove a fantastically, with his lap times within the top five throughout the whole race. Towards the end he was fighting with Perez for P7, but unfortunately he wasn't able to overtake him. Nevertheless, his eight position, under the circumstances of his race, is a success. Carlos struggled a bit at the beginning because after yesterday's crash in qualifying, he was forced to start from P14. After the Safety Car, he had a short technical issue, going into neutral, which we also need to investigate to understand why it happened. He lost a lot of positions because of this. At the end of the race, we thought that Carlos would catch Max faster, because he had new Option tyres on, while Max had fitted used Options. Therefore, we calculated that Carlos could've had a better chance to attack Perez, but he didn't close the gap to Max well enough to really demonstrate that he could do this, so there was no reason to end up swapping their positions. I must say that the performance from the car and the drivers was really fantastic and the new upgrades worked well. I'd like to congratulate the Aero department for their great job back at the factory, because here at the track we've confirmed that all their calculations were actually valid. The Vehicle Performance group has also worked very well, because we really have a competitive car, which makes me confident we can also do a good job next week in Suzuka - I look forward to it!"
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "Overall it was a very good race and weekend, although we could have achieved a better result without the stall on the grid from Max. The engines worked perfectly all weekend and the crew did a great job trackside to ensure we had no issues. Let's continue in this form to ensure more good results for the team in the forthcoming races."
Lotus F1 Team fought a tough Singapore Grand Prix with Pastor Maldonado finishing twelfth and Romain Grosjean classified thirteenth. Romain was able to feature strongly in the top ten for much of the race, but diminishing tyre performance late on meant a better finish was not possible. Pastor sustained damage to his car after contact from Jenson Button's car which blunted his late-race performance.
Romain started from P10 on the grid on his qualifying super soft tyres. He changed to scrubbed softs on lap 9 and new softs on lap 26. Pastor started from P18 on new super soft tyres, changing to new super softs on lap 10, new softs on lap 27 and new super softs on lap 54.
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "We scored no points today but we certainly fought hard. It's a long, hot and humid race so thanks to Pastor and Romain for pushing to the maximum for every lap. Everyone in the team has been working hard all week so it's frustrating for all of us when we fall short of the points. We're certainly focused on a better result in Japan."
Nick Chester, Technical Director: "That was a long tough race for us. Romain lost positions at the start so we brought forward his stops to undercut and gain track position. Unfortunately this meant we missed out on a quick pit stop under the virtual safety car at the first stop. We suffered worse tyre degradation than expected on Romain's final stint which cost us in the last few laps. Pastor made up positions from his start but was compromised later on after the damage sustained from Jenson. We are now looking forward to Suzuka."
The Sauber F1 Team scored another point in the Singapore Grand Prix - it was the fourth points-win in a row after the Grands Prix in Budapest, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. During the night race on the equator, Felipe Nasr managed to clinch P10 and Marcus Ericsson took P11. Also positive during this weekend was the analysis of the data collected from the new aerodynamic package on both Sauber C34-Ferrari. The Sauber F1 Team is very confident that it can show the full potential of this aero update at the coming race tracks.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "Considering the results, it was a positive end to a race weekend during which we have made mistakes. Besides of that, we also had bad luck during the second safety car phase. The drivers did their best until the very end. The whole team showed a good performance in the heat of the Singapore night, and this point is well-deserved."
The Manor Marussia F1 Team notched up its ninth two-car finish today and its second best combined race result of the season in the 2015 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi, making his F1 debut, ended the gruelling night race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 14th position, while his team-mate Will Stevens crossed the line in 15th place.
Alexander's confidence has been steadily building since he took to the Singapore streets for the first time in Friday's opening free practice session, notwithstanding the fact that this track provides one of the most challenging initiations for any newcomer. The unforgiving nature of the tight and twisty circuit, coupled with high temperatures and fierce humidity, are usually more than enough for any driver, but Alex also had to contend with running the latter half of the race without radio communications to the team, which effectively meant that he was racing blind.
It was a small error from lead qualifier Will Stevens that lost him track position on the first lap, and he was unable to recover the place. He pushed hard to take advantage of the opportunities created by two safety car periods, but this only served to penalise him with severe rear tyre degradation in the final stint.
John Booth, Team Principal: "I'd like to start by congratulating the whole team on an incredible job here in Singapore this week, culminating in our second best combined race result and our ninth two-car finish of the season. This is not an easy environment for any team member to operate in, and that's before we add a new driver into the mix. Our trackside operation this week has been incredibly slick and particularly creditworthy were the substantial repairs required on both cars in the field on Friday; cars which, today, enabled both drivers to take the chequered flag. As we saw, this was not the case with some teams further up the field. The drivers did an excellent job in what was a tough race, Alexander coping admirably with the pressure of his F1 debut. He delivered a solid and confident performance, whilst also having to contend with having no radio communications in the second half of the race, which was tricky because of the instructions we needed to give him during the second Safety Car period. Will also did a good job, but was battling rear tyre degradation for the final stint and did well to finish the race on that set. All in all, a very positive outcome at the first of the fly-away races."
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has sealed his third victory of the season for Ferrari, using a two-stop strategy at night on the streets of Singapore to clinch his 42nd career win. The race was characterised by a lengthy safety car period a third of the way into the race, which added a new dimension to the already complex strategy calculations, followed by a second safety car period 20 laps from the finish. During the second safety car, the drivers made their last stops, with a final sprint to the finish that produced plenty of entertaining battles.
The entire field started the grand prix on the P Zero Red supersoft tyre, nominated together with the P Zero Yellow soft this weekend. But there were already some different ideas about strategy from the first round of pit stops onwards. Some drivers – including the top three – stuck with the supersoft, while both Mercedes drivers switched to the soft tyre for the second stint. The same strategy was used by Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen, who went from a lap down at the beginning, following a problem at the race start, to a points-scoring eighth. The 17-year-old then used the rapid supersoft at the end of the race to make up positions. The fastest lap was actually set on the soft tyre on lap 52 by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who finished second.
Singapore kept up its 100% record of having at least one safety car during the race, going to the full two-hour time limit for a grand prix. Despite this being the longest race of the year, the vast majority of the field used a two-stop strategy. The highest-placed three-stopper was Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz, who ended up ninth at the finish.
The Singapore Grand Prix was run in hot and humid conditions, with ambient and track temperatures of 30 and 33 degrees respectively, which fell gradually as the race went on.
Paul Hembery: "Tactics and tyre management played an important role during this evening's race. Conditions were as tough as ever in Singapore, with the heat, humidity and sheer length of the race, but Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel were able to get the very best out of the tyres and the strategy, knowing when to push and when to keep something in reserve. It was a perfect race from him. The strategy for every team was obviously affected by the two safety car periods, which had the effect of stretching out the stints. As a result, we saw more drivers moving towards a two-stop strategy rather than a three-stopper. All the way down the field though, there was some different thinking about which order would be the best one to use the tyres in. With such a long race distance, looking after the tyres most effectively was crucial to success, especially in the closing stages."
Truth-O-Meter
We predicted a three-stopper as theoretically the fastest scenario for the 61-lap race, but we also thought that most teams would opt for a two-stopper because of traffic. In the end, the strategy was mainly affected by the two safety cars, plus one virtual safety car period. The two-stopper we expected was: start on supersoft, switch to supersoft again on lap 24 and soft on lap 43. Vettel followed the pattern we expected but the timing of his stops was influenced by the safety car. He made his two pit stops on laps 13 and 37.
