Alonso takes Singapore, Hamilton Third
SINGAPORE, 28th September 2008 - In the world’s first ever night time Formula 1 Grand Prix, Renault’s Fernando Alonso has taken the checked flag ahead of William’s Nico Rosberg and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa took pole position in qualifying ahead of main title rival Lewis Hamilton. Massa was only one point behind Hamilton in the driver’s championship prior to today’s race. Most drivers and their teams decided to adjust their body clocks to accommodate the less than usual night time race.
Massa and Hamilton started from the front row of the grid in positions one and two respectively. They maintained the same positions early in the race despite some early debris on the track. On lap 13, Massa opened up a massive 4.5 second lead over Hamilton who only held slender lead over the now fast Kimi Raikkonen.
The race took a strange turn on lap seventeen. Massa goes into the pits, and drives off with the fuel hose still in the car. Amid the chaos, he blocked the pit lane and his crew managed to remove the fuel hose, but his race was in decline from then on.
Amid all that, Hamilton and Raikkonen were also in the pits. Massa went into last place as a result of the pit mix up. The new race leader was now William’s Nico Rosberg. This was not to last long as Renault’s Fernando Alonso was making his way up the field and was clearly the fastest man on the track. Also steadily climbing was Hamilton making his way up the field from after the initial pit incident and now was into top three behind Alonso and Rosberg.
Alonso took the lead in the last third of the race and managed to hold onto it until the checkered flag. Rosberg finished in second after a tussle with Hamilton who in the end seemed content to take third and the points to open up a 7 point lead in the drivers championship over thirteenth finishing Felipe Massa.
Ladbrokes have Lewis Hamilton at 2/7 favourite to win the overall drivers championships.
SINGAPORE F1 GP RACE RESULTS:
1 F Alonso (Renault)
2 N Rosberg (Williams)
3 L Hamilton (McLaren)
4 T Glock (Toyota)
5 S Vettel (Toro Rosso)
DRIVERS STANDINGS:
01 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 84 Points
02 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) - 77 Points
03 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) - 64 Points
04 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) - 57 Points
05 Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) - 56 Points
