The safety car has appeared every year to slow down proceedings. ► The above statistic paints a slightly false picture, as the Singapore Grand Prix has never been allowed to go the distance at racing speeds. This was the first time since 2008 a grand prix had been completed by duration rather than distance. Having gone beyond the two-hour cut-off point, the chequered flag was waved after 59 laps on this occasion instead of the scheduled 61. The 2012 race was the slowest to date with Vettel’s winning time recorded as 2:00:26.144. Fernando Alonso’s victories in 20 were both completed in 1h57m and Sebastian Vettel’s triumph in 2011 pushed that out to 1h59m. The shortest Singapore Grand Prix to date was the 2009 race, won by Lewis Hamilton for McLaren in a time of 1:56:06.337. ► The Singapore Grand Prix has always ran close to the two-hour maximum race time. The strategic significance of track position, the ever-present threat of safety cars and forecast thunderstorms all contribute to make this grand prix potentially more complicated that those that have preceded it. Vettel isn’t expected to have it quite so easy on the streets of Marina Bay. In doing so the reigning World Champion has established a lead of 53 points over Alonso and 81 over Hamilton. Vettel comes to Singapore this year in much better shape, off the back of wins in Belgium and Italy, both executed in imperious fashion.
In 2012 Singapore marked the start of a four-race winning sequence for Vettel that saw him steadily diminish Alonso’s lead in the drivers’ championship. The last two runnings of the race have seen Sebastian Vettel victorious. Fernando Alonso won in 20, bracketing a win for Lewis Hamilton in 2009.
Since joining the World Championship calendar in 2008, the Singapore Grand Prix has been won by just three drivers, who are also the three men leading the chase for the 2013 drivers’ title. Between the abundant undulations of the city boulevards, the glare of the lights, the high temperatures and the humidity, Singapore presents perhaps the sternest challenge of the racing year. With 23 corners, unforgiving walls and a lap time longer than at any other current grand prix, Marina Bay demands ultimate concentration from drivers – but Singapore does everything it can to shake that concentration.
After the high-speed demands of Monza, the streets of Singapore offer a very different challenge. The bright lights of the Marina Bay circuit provide the welcome this week as F1 heads east for the Singapore Grand Prix, the 13th round of the 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship.
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