The extreme weather in Singapore did not affect the motor racing for the Singapore Grand Prix last Sunday and Lewis Hamilton ran away with the race, controlling it from start to finish.
Max Verstappen also gave us an excellent demonstration of forceful driving but his Red Bull Renault was no match for the Mercedes despite the fact that he was using the latest D spec Renault engine.
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Even the Renault works team were on C spec engines. He briefly lost his second place to Sebastian Vettel but regained it by out smarting him at the pit stop.
Vettel, who finished third, looked very disappointed with his weekend work. We were also surprised by Ferrari’s slight lack of performance at a track that suits the Prancing Horses.
Some inside news that I learnt in England is that there is a petrol war going on between Ferrari and Mercedes.
Shell for the former and Petronas for the latter have been using all their technical facilities, including the universities, to come up with some trick chemistry within the regulations that gives the cars more power.
Ferrari had held an advantage here.
Back to the race: Valtteri Bottas was three place back from his team mate in fourth position, Kimi Raikkonen two away from his in fifth while Daniel Ricciardo was four places back from Verstappen in sixth position.
Fernando Alonso drove an excellent race in a much better performing McLaren Renault in seventh, while the official Renault team, consisting of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg, finished eighth and tenth respectively.
Charles Leclerc gave us another display of good driving in his Sauber Alpha Romeo, bringing it home in ninth, while Pierre Gasly, who had been performing really well, finished outside the points in 13th position in the Toro Rosso Honda.
The next race is in Russia on September 30.
It will be very important for Ferrari and Vettel to close the 40 point lead that Hamilton has before he runs away with the championship.
Driver: 1 Lewis Hamilton 281 points; 2 Sebastian Vettel 241 pts; 3 Kimi Raikkonen 174 pts; 4 Valtteri Bottas 171 pts; 5 Max Verstappen 148 pts; 6 Daniel Ricciardo 126 pts.
Team: 1 Mercedes 452 pts; 2 Ferrari 415 pts; 3 Red Bull 274 pts.
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