Singapore race an F1 highlight

It rates right up there with Monaco in the glamour stakes despite this year’s event being only the sixth edition of the night race. When 22 cars delivering a combined 13 000 kW scream around the Asian city/state for two hours without headlamps, but under some of the brightest lights known to man, the sight and sounds are simply out of this planet.

And that is even without factoring the non-stop drama Singapore’s races have invariably delivered. This weekend’s race marks the 13th round of the world championship and is likely to be an absolute cracker – with runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel a marked man after dominating the last two rounds.

Sebastian Vettel (left) takes an early lead in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday. The German edged towards a fourth successive Formula One world crown by winning the Belgian race.

The race is run through Singapore’s Marina Bay area on streets more usually packed with city traffic, predominantly diesel taxis, delivery trucks and smoking mopeds. As a result the bumpy surface is inconsistent, offering low grip levels and incorporating the usual street furniture such as painted white lines, manhole covers and lamp posts.

All five previous editions of the event have featured at least one safety car deployment, so statistically the same can be expected during Sunday’s 61-lap race which starts at 8pm local time. Although no rain is forecast for the weekend – incredibly for an event held virtually on the Equator no night race has yet been declared ‘wet’ but drivers will be soaked to the skin through sheer exhaustion under stiflingly humid 322 degree skies.

They will shift gear 80 times per lap – a total of 5 000 shifts in two hours – and brake at full pressure for 20% of each lap, or almost 1 000 times in total.

Eight corners of the rather angular 5,073 kilometre street circuit’s 23 turns (11L and 12R) are taken at speeds below 100 km/h with the final sector demanding absolute concentration. Here drivers need to negotiate 10 corners in the space of 1 500 metres with little or no run-off areas.

In keeping with 2013 convention two DRS zones will operate. DRS 1 and 2 are virtually adjacent to each other and much chopping and changing could result on the narrow streets.

Pirelli has specified its Supersoft (red sidewall markings) and Medium (white) compounds as used for the public road races in Australia and Canada – and we know how tyre degradation enhanced the spectacle of those races. Two stops are likely to be the minimum with three on the cards for aggressive drivers unless, of course, it rains which is unlikely.

Going to this race triple reigning champion Vettel (Red Bull Racing) tops the log with 222 points from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on 169 with Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton third on 141. Hamilton is now virtually out of it given that Vettel has more than three straight wins in hand over the Briton with seven races remaining.

Kimi Raikkonen (134), at the centre of a storm last week after the announcement he would next year be returning to the Ferrari team which fired him in 2009, lies fourth dropping down the rankings after two disappointing races for Lotus.

Being out of the title running does not disqualify Hamilton and Raikonen – or fifth-placed Mark Webber who is soon to leave Red Bull to go sports car racing with Porsche from next year – from taking the fight to the two leaders. They have, nothing to lose.

The race marks the final stand-alone round of the season, with the remaining six races being paired in Korea/Japan, India/Abu Dhabi and the US and Brazil over a period of seven weeks.

To accommodate Sunday’s night race all preliminary sessions are delayed by six hours with final qualifying at 2pm on Saturday.