2016 Singapore Grand Prix summary

2016 Singapore Grand Prix summary

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Nico Rosberg regained the lead of the world championship by winning the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver came under pressure from Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race and finished less than half a second ahead of the Red Bull driver.

2016 Singapore Grand Prix in pictures
Lewis Hamilton finished third despite being overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen at one stage. The Ferrari driver came fourth ahead of his team mate, who recovered to finish in the top five having started last.

The second Red Bull of Max Verstappen finished sixth after a late pass on Fernando Alonso’s McLaren. Sergio Perez held off Daniil Kvyat for eighth place while Kevin Magnussen claimed the final point for Renault.

That meant Esteban Gutierrez had to once again settle for 11th place and missed out on points for Haas. Felipe Massa was Williams’ highest finish in 12th.

Team mate Valtteri Bottas had retired mid-way through the race. He was involved in a first-lap crash which put Nico Hulkenberg into the pit wall and brought out the Safety Car. Jenson Button was also involved in the same incident and later retired.

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “2016 Singapore Grand Prix summary”

  1. LovelyLovelyLuffield
    18th September 2016, 15:13

    This race proves one thing:

    Ferrari doesn’t need a better car, though it helps to have one. What Ferrari needs are better strategists.

    1. I was so gutted when they called Rai in the pits. No way Ham would take 3rd from him until end of the race. Absolute amateurs.

      1. It was a really dumb move. Raikkonen drove very well all through and certainly deserved that podium.

      2. lap times prove you wrong, but at least Raikonnen would be the car ahead, and we all know Mercedes is not the best when following other cars. for me, i think Ferrari saw Raikonnen pass Hamilton, and probably thought he could do it again.

    2. Unbelievable screw up! =8-!

      How come the Ferrari strategists/pitwall get it wrong continuously so many times???
      It begs questions to be asked to those responsible and consequences!

    3. Bring back Ruth Buscombe!

      Instead of running the risk of losing the 3rd place to Hamilton on the track, Ferrari played it safe and decided to safely gift it to Hamilton instead.

      I’d call Ferrari pussies, but even pussies have a bit of spunk! ;-)

    4. This really seems to be the recent story of Ferrari, find a strategist who understands strategy!

      The risk of losing the win comes second to the PR side, earlier in the year we had Vettel questioning and ignoring the strategy calls, I can well imagine Raikonnen stoically ignoring them soon as well after this debacle.

      What is worse for Ferrari, missing out on some points / positions or the negative publicity of the team struggling to be in control?

  2. Yeah, as if 2010 and 2012 didn’t prove that thoroughly. Amazing how they’re always one step behind.

    1. That was in response to LovelyLovelyLuffield’s comment, obviously.

      1. a lot of it was luck in 2010 and 2012, and relied on other teams performance loss also. people should be glad Ferrari are always top 3, they had a great run in 2000-2004, but were great from 1997 to 2015 also, always in top 1-4 positionse. i HATE how people judge Ferrari to be performing bad when they are 3rd best – that shows those people have no understanding of this sport AT ALL.

        1. I don’t expect third best from a team that goes on and on about history, heritage, heritage payments, tifosi and all that rah rah. To me, that’s just a team dwelling on past glories. I expect far more. Otherwise, tone down the whole craziness until they get their act together.

        2. They make good cars, I’m not saying they don’t, but strategy-wise they really miss the Ross Brawn era. I think it also has to do with the pressure to perform. I’m not a fan nor a hater of Ferrari, but I really like Raikkonen (and before him, Alonso), so it gets on my nevers when I, armchair expert, spot their mistake even before they make it. They are predictable in this; they should either have pitted before Hamilton (and hearing Kimi’s comments on the radio it seems he wanted to take advantage of the undercut as often as possible) or gamble on not pitting at all… they actually wasted an on-track pass on a Mercedes in Singapore…

  3. What a race by Rosberg. Outstanding performance!

    1. I think Rosberg only wins when Hammy has proplems

  4. Great race for Vettel (and Rosberg).

    1. Agreed – Masterclass drives from both of them!

  5. How Bottas did not get a penalty for that unsafe release is beyond me. However Sainz not getting a penalty for the crash at the start was very correct, I was afraid he would get one. Verstappen just started terribly, Sainz a bit better and Hulkenberg even better.

    1. @xtwl
      I think not penalising Bottas was the right thing to do. He was released into someone else’s path but didn’t actually impede him and allowed him past. Things did get dangerous because of another team’s mechanic who almost jumped in front of Bottas’s car to fumble with some cables or whatever. But that wasn’t Williams’s fault, that was the other team’s mechanic behaving dangerously.

      1. The release rules are not only to protect the drivers, the mechanics are focused on their job and should not need to worry about someone driving through several pits trying to race in the pit lane. Usually one has the previous pit under watch, not the whole lane.
        Two successive races they’ve been allowing dangerous driving in the pits, if they don’t crack down on it soon, we’re going to have a serious accident.

        1. That’s true, but I have to insist that Bottas’s (or Williams’s) behaviour wasn’t dangerous. It was an incident that happens every weekend, without any consequences. There simply is no good reason to punish a driver or team for a situation that became dangerous solely because of someone else’s behaviour.

          1. I disagree here: the mechanic that was there to do his job did nothing wrong. Bottas should not have raced in a lane that did not exist.
            Blaming the mechanic here is reversing the responsabilities.

      2. Wow, are you really blaming the mechanic for the danger in that situation?

    2. I’ve got a lingering feeling that it was compounded by the fact that the field was being brought through the pitlane. It just felt like that increased the density of cars in the pitlane, particularly a relatively narrow one like today’s (unlike – say – COTA which can support multiple lanes).

      I would strongly think that in such cases, if anyone pits, their release should be held until a clear gap is available to release them in (or wait until the last car has passed).

      @nase: I cannot blame the mechanic – he was on the painted part of the pitlane and not in the normal path taken by cars. Bottas elected to drive on that part parallel to Vettel, instead of waiting for Vettel to pass and rejoin the tarmac portion of the pitlane.

      On the topic of dangers, what about the marshal who was still on the start-finish straight when the safety car peeled away and Rosberg cranked it open? How far away was he from Rosberg? The camera shot from the end of the start-finish straight compresses the distances so it made it hard to judge. In any case, that seems like sloppy marshalling.

  6. great race… Ricciardo… i feel he is a better driver then Rosberg, and also better then Hamilton, Verstappen is the new Schumacher/Alonso/Hamilton, but cant get that initial career consistentany against his team-mate those guys did, because Ricciardo is an Ayrton Senna level! Ricciardo is the driver of the year so far.

    1. Is Ricciardo not more the Alain Prost type?
      So far, its Verstappen who has utilized some of the ‘bad boy’ behaviors from Senna. if you insist on such ‘grouping’ though, both drivers have a long way to go in my book, before getting into the heavy hitters league of those F1-greats.
      Verstappen will need to more consistently showing great moves and beat his team mate. A single win and substantially behind his mate in the WDC does not make him comparable to the class of Schumacher/Alonso/Hamilton.

  7. Yeah, but he almost hit a mechanic. I still think there should be zero tolerance for pit lane blunders. We’re seeing early releases waaay too often.

  8. Can’t agree comments from Kpcart more.
    Yes, they maynot be champion for years but 80% Ferrari are top three
    ForzaFerrari

  9. It was also interesting to see a Singapore GP where the safety car didn’t come out during the course of the race, but only at the start. That made it an almost accident free Singapore GP!

    Kudos to Rosberg for his composure in the finishing stages. If only he’d not done those two silly lunges on HAM/VES earlier in the season, I’d have said he’s a tough and mature driver based on this season’s performance.

    Many of us (myself included) thought that after the summer break he’d continue to be dominated by Hamilton, but its really impressive to see how he’s taken being on the backfoot at the start of the summer break and converted it into favourable results thereafter.

    1. His lunge on Hamilton was silly, but I saw his lunge on Verstappen as a great move.

      1. I agree, re VES. Funny thing is, that was one of those moves where different camera angles and replays showed each of them as the aggressor. The live race feed made it seem like Rosberg was pulling another silly stunt, but subsequent replays showed how Verstappen forced his line.

  10. I’ve been a Williams fan for 24 years and even I think there should have been a punishment for the Bottas release.

    1. Indeed. It was a disgrace, but God only knows what goes on in that stewards room. It’s certainly not common sense.

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