Singapore GP Qualifying Analysis
Mercedes
Not since Monaco has Mercedes looked beatable in qualifying, yet for the seventh time this season the current world championship leaders locked out the front row. Lewis Hamilton managed a lap time of 145.681 around the tight Marina Bay street circuit, a time which was only seven thousandths of a second faster than his team mate, Nico Rosberg. The run down to the first corner will no doubt provide an interesting spectacle, as Rosberg knows he’ll have to get past Hamilton early on as Singapore provides little overtaking opportunities.
Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo would have surprised himself just as much as he surprised everyone else with a stellar qualifying session, placing third overall. Red Bull looked off the pace throughout the practice sessions yet the Australian managed a respectable 145.854, a time which sees him start ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel, the current world champion’s quickest time being a 145.902. Though Vettel will be disappointed being out qualified by Ricciardo, Red Bull will be more than happy with both cars locking out the second row on the grid.
Ferrari
For the first time this year, Ferrari went into qualifying with their best chances of grabbing pole. Both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen showed signs throughout the practice and early qualifying sessions that their Ferrari’s had the pace to get the job done yet Q3 proved to be a disaster for the Scuderia. Alonso missed out on P4 by five thousandths of a second whilst Raikkonen had to settle for P7 after his Ferrari had a power failure. The team will be looking to make up for a bad qualifying session with a good race result, if not, Ferrari may have missed out on their best opportunity yet to take a race win.
Williams
Williams have a specialty car as it seems that tight corners don’t suit the FW36 yet long straights and winding corners do. Because of this, Singapore was never going to be a track that they would excel on. Felipe Massa was able to split the Ferrari’s though with a 146.000 whilst Valteri Bottas will start in P8 behind Kimi Raikkonen, managing a fastest Q3 time of 146.187.
McLaren
A top ten starting position is always in the plans for a team like McLaren, but starting from P9 isn’t exactly what they wanted; Kevin Magnussen however, putting in a respectable 146.250. Yet team mate Jenson Button wasn’t so lucky, missing out on Q3 after being knocked out in Q2, taking P11. With Button’s contract expiring at the end of the season and his future at McLaren in question, the Brit will want to make up for his lack of pace with a decent result in tomorrow’s race.
Toro Rosso
Not helping Button’s cause is the impressive Daniil Kvyat locking his car into P10 with a 147.362. The young Russian is coming off a great weekend in Monza and seemed to be carrying some new found confidence into this race weekend. However, one man who can relate to the woes of Jenson Button is soon to be ex-Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne, the Frenchman being once again being out-classed by his own younger team mate, placing his STR9 in only P12.
Force India
Much like Willams, Force India seem to be serious contenders but then fall off the grid come the next race. Unfortunately, Singapore has shown the latter to be the case for the team. Nico Hulkenberg only managed P13 whilst his team mate, Sergio Perez, could only secure P15.
Sauber
The Swiss team have fallen into obscurity of late, with development on their 2014 contender seemingly coming to a halt. It’s no surprise then that Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil only managed P14 and P17 respectively.
Lotus
Though Sauber have remained stagnant for some time now, Lotus have been on the move. Unfortunately, it’s in the wrong direction. It’s no wonder that Romain Grosjean wants out when he could only manage a 147.812 (two seconds off the front row pace setters) and P16. No complaints were heard from Pastor Maldonado despite a woeful qualifying session, getting his Lotus only as high as P18.
Marussia
No revelations from the bottom end of the grid, with Jules Bianchi only qualifying in P19, ahead of his team mate, Max Chilton in P21.
Caterham
Though a P20 for Kamui Kobayashi isn’t ground breaking, the Japanese out-qualifying his team mate (Marcus Ericsson, P22) might be enough to secure his seat at the team for his home Grand Prix, even though he has hinted that Singapore may be his last appearance in Formula 1.