[avdhesh15]

Lewis is fast approaching LEGEND status, and surely would be well deserved. He has been brilliant all year with a supposedly inferior car.

As for Ferrari, I can surely do a better job as the strategist! As would most of us. It's inexplicable that Vettel would be on ultra-softs in a street race where overtaking is a cardinal sin. Ridiculous!

I also now truly believe that unless something miraculous happens for Ferrari (e.g. Hamilton DNF 2 times), it's game, set, and match for Lewis and Mercedes in both WDC and WCC.

[arun_josie]

Force India had a strong car to finish P7 and P8, but they threw away the 10 points which was there for taking. This would have helped them big time to catch-up with the teams above them in the constructor championship.

A fantastic drive by Hamilton and Verstappen.

[ajmat]

Very strong finish for Lewis. He's worked hard for it despite his crazy histrionics off track occassionally!

There was more fun in the back markers actually! Grosjean Vs Sorotkin, was hoping for a 3 way way for P4 but Singapore being a treacherous track, no one wanted to take that risk.

You could tell how demanding the track was by the fact that the Podium winners looked totally drained.

[sun_king]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Lewis looks to have completely broken both Vettel and Ferrari. The latter is throwing away valuable points when it ideally should be clawing those back to cut that lead which looks so big right now.

That was an imperious lap from Lewis on Saturday! And this is supposed to be a bogey track for Mercedes! Just wow!

And he didn't put a foot wrong on Sunday too. Lewis was easily able to pull back a lead after the backmarkers squeezed up the leading pack towards the end of race. There was simply no answer from anyone.

To me the current relative performance looks as given below.

Lewis: 5/5
Mercedes Strategy: 5/5
W09: 4.75/5

Vettel: 3.5/5
Ferrari Strategy: 3/5
SF71H: 5/5

The boys from Maranello is not doing justice to the machine they've.

Ferrari's hope for a win was a jump on Max (and probably Lewis too, but that is too optimistic!) and then wait for the pitstop window to put on Ultras to attempt an undercut. Once ahead, get a 10 - 15 second lead on Lewis and then go back to Hypers towards the end of the race to make a move on Lewis who should now be struggling with his Softs. It was an audacious plan and timing was crucial. The laps Seb spent behind Perez right after the pitstop was the foundation for the disaster and then there was Hamilton who couldn't do anything wrong in Singapore. Even his comments that there is a lot left in the tires was misheard by the Ferrari engineers. Perez was lapping about 4 second slower than Seb at that time, if they had waited for one more lap before bringing him in, the outcome could have been different. Ferrari got the timing of their pitstop wrong in a race where timing was everything. You are too generous on the ratings for Ferrari strategy (3.5 is a little low, should have been 5/5 for audacity and 0/5 for execution, averaging to 2.5 overall). Seb didn't drive that bad, 3.5 is a tad harsh

150 points in play now, still in the window where Seb can theoretically win the championship on his own, but that seems far fetched. Lewis deserves 2018 WDC, for once he stood up against a superior car and beat it fair and square where it matters.

[PuntoMania]

Lewis Hamilton has put in another flawless performance. That lap on Saturday was nothing short of exceptional. He did not miss a single apex, and got the power down as if it was a video game.

These are cars that are about 3 seconds faster than last year. Which in itself is a gruelling challenge.

Hamilton, in race after race has put daylight between himself and Vettel. This is the year where he has firmly established himself as F1's #1 driver. He's comfortably leading a championship in a year where Ferrari are at the very least an equal to Mercedes, and by most measures is the better car. In my eyes, he's already the greatest ever qualifier to ever sit in an F1 car.

It would be an absolute shame for him to lose 2018 after this purple patch he's been on.

[CaptainPrice]

No doubt that this was a poor set of performances from Ferrari's race management. Also, Lewis Hamilton was magically able to crank up the engine and establish huge leads and then cooling down to maintain those leads. So that part was boring to watch.

Perez's performance was downright horrible, deserving of a race-ban at the very minimum along with Super Licence points.

What kept me on the edge of my seat were two situations:

1. Sirotkin vs. Perez.

Not once, not twice, but thrice. I hated the fact that Williams chose not to pit Sirotkin to change to Hypersofts after the Perez incident so that he had good rubber. The poor bloke was slipping and sliding throughout.

2. Daniel 'dive-bomb' Ricciardo's driving in the closing stages.

I don't know if anyone noticed the massive performance of his Red Bull at Singapore as he set fastest laps, clawed back to within DRS Range of Kimi Raikkonen (sub 1-second) and then, eased off to a 4-second gap and finally re-joined to nearly within 1 second of Kimi, all in the course of a handful of closing laps. This had me constantly biting my nails. What a drive. He's a true legend, and I cannot wait for him to impress in the future.

[ajmat]

One thing to note about the Mercedes, during the Back Marker blockage - Grosjean Vs Sirotkin, Verstappen was 0.3 secs off Lewis. The minute that Lewis got a clear path, he was + 5 seconds ahead within a lap.

Either the car, Lewis or both!

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by ajmat

One thing to note about the Mercedes, during the Back Marker blockage - Grosjean Vs Sirotkin, Verstappen was 0.3 secs off Lewis. The minute that Lewis got a clear path, he was + 5 seconds ahead within a lap.

And the radio response to Max was a classic, when he complained (about the blocking duo) - they're racing!!

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by CaptainPrice

2. Daniel 'dive-bomb' Ricciardo's driving in the closing stages.

I don't know if anyone noticed the massive performance of his Red Bull at Singapore as he set fastest laps, clawed back to within DRS Range of Kimi Raikkonen (sub 1-second) and then, eased off to a 4-second gap and finally re-joined to nearly within 1 second of Kimi, all in the course of a handful of closing laps. This had me constantly biting my nails. What a drive. He's a true legend, and I cannot wait for him to impress in the future.

Yup, even I was surprised by that. Not once, it was twice that happened and I am still trying to figure out how did he manage to do that or was there an issue?

2 questions still in my mind:
1. What made him drop back to 3-4secs?
2. How did he manage to cover that time within a lap?

[HKap]

This isn't the first time that Ferrari have botched up on strategy. Monza was another disaster. I don't think its just bad luck that they have struggled with after the awesome trio of Todt, Brawn and Schumi left. Letting Schumi go in 2007 was a disaster. He clearly had a couple of years left in him. The car has been awesome this year but trust the dimwits from Maranello to lose a race that is in the bag.

[jpcoolguy]

Awesome performance from that man Alonso as well. He knows that he is in with a chance to finish behind the Top 6 once the qualifying is over and says in the radio as well, "Nice!!!" while responding to his P11. He has outperformed the poor Vandoorne by a huge margin this year and if only he had the car to perform as him.

[nair]

Originally Posted by jpcoolguy

Awesome performance from that man Alonso as well. He knows that he is in with a chance to finish behind the Top 6 once the qualifying is over and says in the radio as well, "Nice!!!" while responding to his P11.

Yes because from P11 onwards they have tire choice as well. Something tells me he wouldn't have been as happy if he was P10.