Poll: Singapore Grand Prix 2017, Singapore - Race 14/20

Rate the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix out of ten

  • Total voters
    95
  • Poll closed .
Irish_Tom said:
Where did Seb find that lap. :eek:
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They had it all the time, it was fairly obviously coming also.

Ferrari and Merc are in title fights where RBR are a safe 3rd, zero chance of 2nd, no chance coming 4th. RBR were turned up all weekend long because they were trying to optimise for their best shot at a pole and win this year. Merc and Ferrari were turned down until Q3 hence both could close. Everyone for 2 months has said Merc will struggle here, Ferrari will be great, it's that simple. Ferrari have more mechanical grip than RBR of Merc, Merc have more efficient aero but less absolute downforce.

You could have called this result 2 months ago with ease.
 
Realistically only a safety car is going to bring the Mercs in to contention.
 
Merlin5 said:
Oh dear, only 5th and 6th for Hamilton and Bottas. This is really such a close championship between Lewis and Vettel.
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Everyone knew this was going to be Merc's worst track so it's not a real surprise.

Lewis just needs to minimise the damage tomorrow as best he can and focus on the remaining races where they should be better than Ferrari.

JunglistE said:
If they finish in the positions they qualified I would back Vettel to win the championship
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Still far to early to say that.
 
Pretty much, even if Vettel came 1st and Ham 5th, Vettel would only have a 13 point lead, Ham wins two races and regardless of where Vettel came he'd be back in the lead.

In reality the only other track Mercedes haven't been completely dominant on would be Brazil, Suzuka and CotA are major Hamilton tracks where he's just brilliant and both will suit the Merc, sweeping fast corners the Merc is great in. Mexico is an engine track so again favours the Mercs, Yas Marina. Of the 5 races after this I'd say 4 of them favour Merc.

The real issue is both reliability, will either team have engine penalties and where might they have them, can they get back to top 5 when they end up taking them(if they do). Then also Bottas and Kimi, both having so many races miles off the pace and unable to create a buffer to the other team. If Bottas had decent pace you could rely on him to take some 2nd's with Ham in 1st to gain more points but his race pace is often just no where near good enough. Today won't matter but Bottas is what 7/10ths down in qualy and looked to be 1.5 seconds off in race pace yesterday.

If Bottas is fast enough I can see them potentially sacrifice his race to hold up anyone he could if any Ferraris or RBRs pit and come out behind him. Other tracks you couldn't do much to hold them up here could definitely cost them time. Might not get Vettel behind him but if for instance Kimi and Ricciardo pit and came out behind him, if he could hold them up for 3-4 seconds it might allow Ham to pit and gain a couple of places. Definitely worth doing but it honestly depends on his pace, last year they were pitting after 15 laps for the leaders, he could quite easily be a full pitstop down on the leaders by then.

RBR race pace was nothing to laugh at yesterday either. Despite Ferrari being turned down the race pace looked extremely strong from RBR. THey may not have the engine to match Ferrari in Q3 but under race level power modes using less fuel they could still have superior pace. I think Ham has more chance of RBR taking points off Vettel than him moving up, but that is better for him due to the points differences, Vettel 2nd and Ham 5th is far better than Vettel 1st Ham 4th.
 
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