The 2013 Singapore Grand Prix was a rare occasion, fans saw something that they really had seen or heard before – Guillaume “Rocky” Rocquelin telling Sebastian Vettel to pull out a gap.
But before that there was an extremely tense Qualifying 3, this was due to the fact Vettel decided not to go for a final run in Q3 because he felt his first timed lap was more than good enough, in which it was but only by less than a tenth of a second. It was however a great nail-biting session, literally for Vettel as he stood in his garage watching Nico Rosberg’s lap. Apart from that it wasn’t a session with too many surprises apart from Kimi Raikkonen being knocked out in Q2, and this was during his ongoing battle with Lotus about being paid, so things weren’t looking too good for the cool Finn. His apparent back problems did not help the cause.
The race itself had lots of interesting battles, the main one that consisted throughout was between future team mates Sergio Perez in the McLaren and Nico Hulkenburg in the Sauber, it was one that saw the FIA get involved and made Hulk give a place back for track limits and I’m sure it led to the teams discussing with the FIA that for the current season that they shouldn’t give so many penalties. The accident that brought out the safety car involved Daniel Ricciardo crashing in, what Rocky referenced as ‘the usual place’. This is of course the famous turn 18, where it is so easy to carry too much speed and run into the tight walls in between the grandstands, it’s an incident that’s happened in almost every year of the Singapore GP.
For the past few seasons Vettel has been told to mind his tyres, not try to set the fastest laps and take no risks. However, round the Marina Bay circuit where the Red Bull Racing car and Vettel himself were all hooked up, he was told open up the gap and use all his tyres. This was so rare that I think it shocked everyone! Not a least the rest of the field because when the safety car went in, he was able to pull out a 30 second gap for the second time in the race and commanded the field on a day no other car would ever get close to him.
The final piece of on track action came from the man who stole the show’s team mate, again Mark Webber’s bad luck came round and his car spectacularly caught fire one lap from the end of the race. He had to pull over and retire from the race so close to a good finish. After retiring he got a lift off his old friend Fernando Alonso, a great moment for the fans to see however the FIA we’re too impressed with the act and gave him a reprimand which led to a penalty, despite the outcry of the fans. What fans didn’t see straight away was when he came back onto the track to get onto Alonso’s car, he came very close to being hit as he was running across the middle of the track.
There was one more story to come from the race and it started on the podium where once again Sebastian Vettel was booed for winning, it’s just an act that is disrespectful and fans are still doing this act this year to Nico Rosberg. Drivers are paid millions to win races, it’s their job, their way of making a living, and you wouldn’t boo any other professional for doing their job in the best possible way.
It did however lead to one of my favourite ever Formula One quotes: ‘I take my hat off to Vettel’s performance if I could choose, I would give him the world championship today for his drive’- Niki Lauda, Singapore 2013.
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