[shibujp]

The Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. TataSky is covering in all stages live -

Practice 1 : 13:55 to 15:30 on SELECT 2
Practice 2 : 17:55 to 19:30 on SELECT 1
Practice 3 : 15:25 to 16:30 on SELECT 2 Saturday
Qualification : 18:25 to 19:30 on SELECT 2 Saturday
Main Race : 17:35 to 19:45 on SELECT 1 Sunday

P2 and main race are on Select 1.

The SingTel Singapore GP 2019


The Singapore GP was first held in 1966 as the Oriental Year Grand Prix. It was discontinued in 1973 when deemed too dangerous. Restarted in 2008 after a deal with Bernie Eccelstone.

The Circuit

• Relatively low speed street circuit. The slowest in the calendar.
• Characterised by bumpy surfaces. Cars bottoming out and sending sparks flying is a common sight.
• Has a high degree of variability with technical sections and quick direction changes. Has some 90 degree turns thrown in for good measure.
• Walls are very close with the few run-off areas quite short by F1 standards.
• Overtaking opportunities usually present themselves at the end of the first sector.
• Full throttle is just 47% of the circuit with the longest period around 9s.
• 80 gear changes per lap which is the highest in the calendar.
• Cars are setup with maximum downforce and a soft suspension to ride over the kerbs.
• Brakes have a tough time with heavy braking events and few straights to cool them off.
• Being a street circuit grip levels are low.

Tyre Choices


Weather
The weather promises to be dry and cloudy with no rain expected.


2018 Race Results
Despite Ferrari entering the 2018 Singapore GP as favorites a messy qualifying meant that Vettel qualified only third with Verstappen at second and Hamilton finishing first. The race finished more of less in that order but not before Vettel pulled off a move on Verstappen to take second in the first lap only to lose to Verstappen when an aggressive undercut pit stop on Hamilton was ruined by a slow Perez holding up the number 5 Ferrari. The allowed Verstappen to haul back second place. Perez triggered two incidents in the race, first taking out Ocon and then driving through a Williams and earning a penalty for his troubles. Alonso signed off with a victory of McLaren in the best of the rest pack.

Mercedes extended it's lead in both the constructors and drivers championships putting even more pressure on the be-leagured Ferrari.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[sgiitk]

The Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. TataSky is covering in all stages live -

Practice 1 : 13:55 to 15:30 on SELECT 2
Practice 2 : 17:55 to 19:30 on SELECT 1
Practice 3 : 15:25 to 16:30 on SELECT 2 Saturday
Qualification : 18:25 to 19:30 on SELECT 2 Saturday
Main Race : 17:35 to 19:45 on SELECT 1 Sunday

P2 and main race are on Select 1.

[vb-saan]

It’s quite muted, but I can still hear the engine roar from my office. It has not rained here for the past few days and it won’t be easy for the drivers (and the crew) if the heavy haze situation goes on for the weekend.

[sgiitk]

Sorry folks. My TataSky STB played up last evening. No programs on display. I barely got P2. Then in a silly bit I did a master reset. Had to reprogram all favourites. Sure enough all came back last night during the outage.

So except for the Mercedes crash of Bottas I do not remember anything about P1 and P2. In any case I expect Ferrari to do well in P3 and Q. Looks like a circuit made for them. As has been pointed out F do not pull out all stops on Day 1.

I hope to watch P3 and Q in peace. Also, worth watching Honda Power.

[sgiitk]

After P3 the old firm of Ferrari and Mercedes dominate. Leclerc 1, Hamilton 2, Vettel 3, and Bottas 4. The next two cars are Honda Powered Red Bulls. Now I await the Qualifications. Obviously the Soft (Red Wall) dominates. However, at the end (after the end of Q3) Hamilton switched to the Yellow Walls.

[speedmiester]

What a great lap by Charles!!!!
A brilliant one to take the pole.
At a track where Ferrari are on backfoot, he pulls out a awesome lap to take pole.
Hamilton could only do so much.

This will be a great race to watch tomorrow.
With chances of safety car, this can be anybody's race.

[nair]

"Charles Leclerc, now I am really impressed" - Martin Brundle.

A working Ferrari update!! Finally. Charles just outperformed Vettel at probably Vettel's strongest track. Very impressive indeed.

No idea what the race pace looks like for the top 3 but with Verstappen behind Hamilton and Vettel, and Hamilton unlikely to jeopardize his strong championship lead, hopefully Ferrari doesn't bottle up the strategy on the street circuit where overtaking is hard. Hamilton will be thinking twice before trying to overtake Charles given how strongly he has been defending his position.

[mayankk]

Anyone else have issues on hotstar with voices when there's engines in audio? Can barely hear the guys for most part!

[speedmiester]

An excellent comeback race and victory by Vettel and a great 1-2 for Ferrari. It will do Vettel a world of good for his confidence.
Really feel sad for Leclerc who could have got a hatrick of race wins.
If only Ferrari had good strategy earlier this season, the championship fight would have been much closer.

[aim120]

Originally Posted by mayankk

Anyone else have issues on hotstar with voices when there's engines in audio? Can barely hear the guys for most part!

Yes, I had the same issue and I guess it's the same for everyone on hotstar.

[Desmosedici]

The day I don't watch the race and its a Ferrari 1-2. Wow. Thats come after a very long time and the first time in Singapore. Happy to see the scarlets up there where they truly deserve to be. Its good to have Seb get a win, maybe this will be the boost he has needed in a long time.

Missed listening to the German Italian anthem. Always reminds me of the glory days of SCHUMI.

[SilentEngine]

An unexpected 1-2 for Ferrari! Only if this form was present in the first half of the season...

Race was processional for most part, but made interesting by the tyre situation in the beginning. For once Mercedes were outfoxed by rivals in strategy.

Very good race for Norris and Gasly. After the demotion to Toro Rosso, Gasly has been impressive!

Originally Posted by mayankk

Anyone else have issues on hotstar with voices when there's engines in audio? Can barely hear the guys for most part!

I was watching the race on very low volume as a result. Audio feed was really terrible.

For some reason I was thinking the race was at 6:40 instead of 5:40! Reached home an hour later and watched deferred feed on Hotstar!

[glikithvinayaka]

The King of Singapore is back!! In Singapore he fell two years ago and rises today!!

His out lap after pitting on lap 19 was just masterclass! He gained 3.5s in that out lap on leclerc, even after having a bad pitstop of 3s compared to Leclerc's 2.4s and Hamilton's 2.3s

Seb also cleared the traffic superbly where he built the gap between himself and leclerc from 0.5s to 6.5s

Hope it shuts off all the hate he has been getting all along, to anyone who was saying he is over, please note he has 4 championships more than any of us.

To quote one of my favourites: "It ain't about how hard you can hit. Its about how hard you can get hit, and how much you can take, and keep moving forward."

[vb-saan]

Finally, a bit of an interesting race in Singapore! Not a Ferrari fan, but happy to see Vettal back on P1. The post-race cold vibes between the two Ferrari drivers could make an interesting end to the season.

[motorworks]

Brilliant race by Ferrari! The drivers and the team did not put a foot wrong! And I thought Seb did everything right, like expected of him.
Leclerc must be disappointed, and he has reasons to be, but the move to pit Seb was to protect him from Max and Hamilton. Such was his outlap pace that he undercut even Leclerc! And in a track like Singapore, overtaking is quite tough and risky as well. So it was always better for Ferrari to insist that Leclerc brings it home 1-2.
And a lot of folks think Ferrari should have swapped. I do not think so. Seb did well in his out lap, so the position was taken by merit.

What was great to see was the way Ferrari performed in this track which was not supposed to suit their car. So I guess for the rest of the season it will be close between RBR and Ferrari. I expect Mercedes to show their upper hand in more traditional tracks like Suzuka and Austin.