Greetings from Singapore! It was an exciting race under the lights at the Marina Bay Circuit where Fernando Alonso drove superbly to lead from start to finish. There was plenty of drama as well – the collision between Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton which saw the latter retire, Schumacher clashing with Nick Heidfeld in his comeback race and Robert Kubica overtaking like a hero in the latter stages of the race. Speaking of that, we haven’t seen so much overtaking in the Singapore GP before!
But one of the most dramatic moments of the race for me and fellow fans seated on the pit straight grandstand was the sight of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus T127 going up in flames right in front of us. We saw the Finn’s car catching fire on the screen, but instead of going into the pits, he drove the by now engulfed car towards the start/finish line. He then jumped out and played fireman, receiving great applause from the crowd for his efforts!
That happened one lap before Alonso took the chequered flag just ahead of a tenacious Seb Vettel, who was sniffing away at the Ferrari’s tail all day. Mark Webber took third to maintain his championship lead.
I’ve covered F1 races from the press room and Paddock Club before, but this was actually my first time watching as a spectator from the grandstand, and it was much more exciting. Great atmosphere, loud crowd, plenty of ooohs and ahhhs – my ears are still buzzing! Our kind hosts, Shell, provided us with Kangaroo TV sets so I could hear the commentary and watch the race on my personal screen, but even with earphones on, my eardrums vibrated painfully everytime a car zoomed pass. Earplugs would have solved the issue, but I would then have to sacrifice commentary!
Anyway, it was a great race and a great experience. Here are some pictures I took to “share the atmosphere” with you. They are after the jump. Enjoy!
[zenphotopress number=999 album=1536]
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What was the cause for the Lotus malfunction?
Heikki was hit by buemi and as he spun, the fuel hose cracked open and caused an airbox fire. Jarno as usual hit by hydraulics problem. FIREMAN HEIKKI.
LOL! alahai! must be a proton OEM fuel hose. langgar sikit sikit bocor! at least no one was hurt. and a perfect metaphor for this F1 season. IT IS ON FIRE!
stupid thinking.ko ingat suka2 letak hose proton ke.this is international race maa..all got standard high end product maa. comment jgn macam budak2 laa
wei, the fire is up the arse of the Lotus carand maybe yours it seems. so serious meh? can die one is it? did someone run over your cat something?! get a sense of humour!
Dickybird, you are rite, I totally support what you said, Proton where got such standard high end product…(are you driving PROTON car now ?)
1 malaysia, lol.
I think Torro Rosso’s Buemi banged into the Lotus to overtake, dislodged the exhaust and caught the carbon fibre body on fire.
The cause of the malfunction is what we called as “rezeki tidak berkat/rezeki haram”. Go figure it yourself, you’ll see the light of the day. ;)
Some time the “fitnah” are more “haram” than “rezeki haram” like you eat your own sibling flash… Go figure it your self, you also will see the light of the day.
It’s funny watching Kovi extinguishing his own car. The marshalls waited until he started before joining in. What the heck?
coz that team has sumthing to do with malaysia… tat’s y..
Watching Heikki Kovalainen put out the raging flames when his Lotus caught fire at Singapore was an embarrassment for a series that prides itself on its safety teams. Even Singaporean isn’t efficient as everybody thought.
singapore marshal eat snake…makan tulang…
They want to watch the show first before join extinguish the fire.. So lazy mehh…
nice singaporean
This is what we called “LOTUS”
so cheap!
technology that PROTON apparently use> LOTUS, sweat’s, can’t imagine what will happen when put into on the road car’s.
blame Cosworth for the engine fire, not Proton.
Proton only supply engineers lol
cant u c PROTON MA handling by LOTUS, cant you see their teaser at “TV”
an everyday car w handling of a supercar, thats what happen
and many more road accidents with local joes driving those everyday cars into wall thinking they drive supercars?!
At least thanks goodness Lotus provide some entertainment on the race otherwise this is yet another forgettable race. Also just too bad, otherwise they finish quite strongly in this race among new teams.
Kinda shame on the organisers, what are the “kiasu kiasi” marshalls were thinking? Heikki has resorted on borrowing the fire extinguishers from the Williams boys since his car stoped nearby them.
Agree.. i believe they will do better next year with Renault involvement and I like how Hiekki response to the incident. He’s really calm.
This is wat v call singaporean.. “kiasu kiasi” attitude.. lol.. “boci marshall” … HEIKKI U ARE THE MAN!!!
Spore GP was really well organise, its like a big festival there…will need to improve our show
The outside appearance might be well organized with the concerts etc. But their marshalling capabilities leaves a lot to be desired. And that’s the most important thing, because it’s a safety issue.
What is it with most commenters here? Blame Proton/Lotus for that fire? Are you blind idiot or something? It is a bloody F1 race car. The driver don’t wear protective suit for nothing. If it safe, they can just wear t shirt and sarong to do the race. Every car out there is a potential canon ball.
I guess next time a Ferrari 458 caught fire, you should blame Proton/Lotus too.
Typical Malaysians. Don’t get too worked up, otherwise you’ll end up with heart problems from all the rage. Let them wallow in their stupidity
you meant potential fireball, fireball. and yes better to let ignorant malaysians wallow in their stupidity and delusions. lest they actually get up make a police report or call you out to a fist fight like some socalled f1 idiot a few months back.
agree , that lotus incident was the only thing i remrember from this race, really boring , dono bcos it was a night race n totally cannot get used to it,or f1 generally lost its luster….boring and forgetable….screw you FIA !
Why did he drive past the pit entry?
He was about to enter the pit lane when he decided it was better to park it far away from the crowded pit lane as the car might explode.
Off Topic about Singapore GP
Heard that the Singapore tow truck crew tried to deliver Hamilton’s car to the Virgin garage post race, because they saw the dayglo red.LOL
Red Bull principal Christian Horner got a bird’s eye view of the flaming Lotus as it passed directly in front of his engineering control centre.
“That was a bit cheeky, he could at least have gone down to McLaren or Ferrari,” he joked. “It was pretty smelly out there with all that foam as well but thankfully nobody got hurt.”
singaporean marshall are useless.. pemalas
not just with heikki incident.. when kobayashi bang the wall.. they just strolling around minum air kotak and don’t know what to do… same thing happen during free practice and qualifying…
dun say this is their 1st encounter this things in race…no way in the last 2 year nothing happened in singapore gp….marshal r really seem dun knw what to do…reaction is vr slow….eat snake
becos the singaporean marshalls/fire crew are mostly volunteers and part timers
at every circuit also use part timer and volunteers
but singaporean marshall is the worst by far
if you watch live telecast yesterday, when hamilton park his car after been hit by webber
the first person to reach there is the photographer
maybe singaporean marshall so takut that hamilton will throw his steering wheel at them
LOL
How did you take those F1 cars pictures so well while passing you so quickly??
digital camera nowadays are capable to snap fast moving object except UFO maa
if you have digital camera; try to take a picture at your table fan while the blade is spinning at full speed… remember to make sure the flash is on… and see the result..
no lah .. i dont percaya about singaporean being lazy and know nothing… singaporean are always better than malaysia ma… err .. not… :-)
lotus loss the race… but won attention…. poor heiki needs to play stunt man work!