2017 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, 15-17 September

[Phil]

Where exactly did he demonstrate this poor sportsmanship? I watched the channel 5 broadcast with the on track interview where Dan seemed to think they had better pace in the race and that not all is lost. I really don't see the big deal. He's usually very upbeat and of course when he fails to achieve what he set out to do, of course he isn't.

[CBeck113]

Ricciardo really a very bad loser - the facade of being smiley is not genuine, he can't really accept being beaten (and once again outqualified by Max - becoming the norm).

Ey? That's a bit harsh. Dan was mighty in FP1 and FP2 and close enough in FP3. What's wrong with genuine disappointment of one of the drivers who possibly thought to have it within grasp to get pole and win on perhaps the best track for RedBull this year?

The Dan vs Max mentioning isn't really necessary IMO.

I just think it's getting to him that Max is genuinely the quicker driver and that it's consistently showing to be the case.

But my real gripe is that he always acts this way - he doesn't say well done to the guy on pole, like Seb and Lewis (both of whom have supreme confidence in their own ability) do to each other, always his reaction is that it should have been him. It's not good sportsmanship and he's not showing himself to be a good sportsman. IMHO

And how many points does Max have so far from qualifying? If he was frustrated, I think more because he thought that they would be faster than the Ferraris (and they did beat Kimi); this was basically their last chance to get a pole this season .

[Andres125sx]

Lewis and specially Seb are more polite, not better sportsmans by any standard. Should I mention some incidents to prove my point?

Ricciardo is on a different planet tough, he´s not WDC, he´s not considered one of the big three, but many of us think he has the potential. He probably does too, so being beated by a teenager must not be easy

Showing dissapointment after loosing is normal, not something you can assume he´s not an sportman, sportmanship is shown on track, and on track Ricciardo is as clean as any aggressive driver can be. What is shown in front of a camara is politeness, and in this aspect Ricciardo usually is very polite too, but you can´t bash him because of being dissapointed after missing his best chance for a pole in the whole season

[DVB]

It's because these interviews are directly after the qualifying, which makes them so emotional. If they would be
30 minutes later, everyone else would react totally different.


For instance, 2 weeks ago, i was attending an european championship kite-buggy as a pilot. When we do 4 races, we have 1 discard. So you could have 1 screw up race and that one doesn't count. I was in the lead after 3 days and on the 4th day, someone crashed into me,which made me start 3.5 minutes later then the pack and end up 23rd place. Oh man I was fed up, could throw my helmet into everyone . I knew i was supposed to end up top 3, but this could cost me a lot of points and a championship. And it wasn't even my own fault. But then keep calm for the next race and turn those agressive energy into something positive is never easy. In the end, i won so it's all fine.

Are those moments of anger pure sportmanship? These pilot's load themselves up for these events. Like someone said before, this is the race of the year of Red Bull so you train and live up to it. For instance, if Max would give Vettel a flat tyre in turn 1, because of hitting his rear with his front wing, I could understand 500%, Vettel swearing over him on the radio. Don't forget these pilots are humans with feelings, just be happy them responding in different ways

[GPR-A duplicate2]

And how many points does Max have so far from qualifying?

Toto and Maurizio should be able to answer that question better with their cheque books.

[godlameroso]

That Ferrrai always gets pole on tracks that are impossible to overtake (Monaco, Sochi, Hungary, Singapore). It was a mega lap from Seb though hitting the wall with his rear tyre, that gearbox must be made of granite. If it rains which likely we could have a classic race.

Don't worry they'll be just as competitive in Malaysia, Ferrari is very strong there, as they have been traditionally, then Mercedes will strike back in Japan, Mexico, and COTA are too close to call, but Brazil will be good for Mercedes as it has long full throttle sections. Abu-Dhabi is a toss up, but I think Ferrari might have the edge there.

[WaikeCU]

I wonder how much the cars are set up for a wet race in this Quali? The Mercs are respective half a second and more than a second off of Vettel's pace, but does this also mean that the gap is also that big in wet conditions. I beg to differ. If it rains, I think Max, Lewis, Fernando and Hulkenberg are the ones to watch tomorrow. Exciting to see how it will unfold.

[Juzh]

Vettel vs Verstappen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TETZeENIhU

On this track, where downforce and energy deployment are a non-issue, ferrari PU clearly still has the legs on the renault and is probably almost on mercedes level (speed traps pretty much identical).

Quite the opposite of the situation in monza, where renault's superior ERS certainly made up for lack of ultimate grunt and enabled RB to be faster than ferrari on pace.

[TAG]

Handy little tool from the Meteorological Service of Singapore to track rain in the area.

[Sonador]

A segment of the post quali press conference:

******
Q: Max, almost, almost that first pole, almost the first ever teenage Formula One polesitter. This place is all about ramping it up, as Sebastian's just said, tell us why you couldn't find that step in the final run in Q3.
MV: I think I did - just not as much as Sebastian but all in all I think the weekend was a good progression, getting better and better. And qualifying also was constant improvement. Even though the whole weekend we're a bit down on power. I don't know why, we couldn't really solve it. Lost a bit of top speed there. It's not idea but at the end of the day, to be second here, on this track, I think is very promising. We are not too far off so I can be quite happy with this qualifying
*****

Just as yesterday, he talks about a loss in horsepower, the beginning of the end for his current PU?
To out qualify you temamate with a PU down on power, how fast would he have been without this problem?

[Artur Craft]

I personally think Hamilton will be mighty here. It all comes down to how the Merc behaves around this circuit. Lewis is great at street courses and if this isn't the best car suited for this track, the driver still can make the difference and with the momentum he has after Spa and Monza, he could be in a different zone. In 2009 the Mclaren certainely wasn't the best car around, but he did put that car on pole in Singapore with a mighty lap and also won the race as well. It all remains to be seen on how the Merc has overcome it's issues early in the season.

No offence but saying that Hamilton is "great at street courses" is almost like someone saying that he's relieved a particular car is in the safe hands of Pastor Maldonado

Unfortunately for Hamilton, he couldn't go lower on fuel(as, for instance, on the mentioned 2009 ocasion) this time, nor he had a massive power advantage on his hands, playing out for him(due to the track characteristics)

I am sticking my head out. Lewis for pole by a country mile.

Don't worry, Mercedes will be on a league of it's own again on most of the other tracks and you and the other fans of Hamilton will be able to believe and tell everybody how special you think he is

vettel shows who's boss on this track. Mercedes gets destroyed as soon as an engine is not worth 0.5s advantage over the rest. good.

Like we've been saying forever.... On power tracks, Force India and Williams are always strong and best of the rest and, on tracks where power is less important, Mclaren, STR and Renault are easily better.

[ollandos]

Vettel vs Verstappen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TETZeENIhU

On this track, where downforce and energy deployment are a non-issue, ferrari PU clearly still has the legs on the renault and is probably almost on mercedes level (speed traps pretty much identical).

Quite the opposite of the situation in monza, where renault's superior ERS certainly made up for lack of ultimate grunt and enabled RB to be faster than ferrari on pace.

looks to me ferrari have different gears ratio and accelerate faster with more power...vettel have 7-8km/h more before brakes zones..

[Dave P Fanclub]

What tyres do we think the front runners will go for in their second stints? Everyone has one fresh set of SS and one fresh set of S. Only Vettel and Hamilton did any serious running on the soft on Friday but are we to assume they'll both opt for the soft over the super (assuming a one-stop strategy which sounds likely)? You'd think Red Bull will try and take advantage of their lower deg rates by stretching out a U/SS, assuming safety cars don't come into play.

[Zynerji]

Full wets will be the race tyre.

We should be assigning odds for who crashes out 1-10...

[Shrieker]

Don't worry, Mercedes will be on a league of it's own again on most of the other tracks and you and the other fans of Hamilton will be able to believe and tell everybody how special you think he is

That is just sour grapes. On a similar note, where was Vettel in a wet Monza ? Beaten by a FIndia. Beaten by a Williams, which has sucked d0nkey a$$ for years now in wet weather. Beaten by his well past it team mate even.

The point is, one swallow does not make a summer They give the trophy at the end of the year to whomever is the best overall.