POSTED ON September 23rd, 2011
Singapore 2010
The first of six flyaway races to end the season takes place in Singapore this weekend. Mark heads to the city-state hoping for a repeat of his podium finish last year, but he’s not expecting an easy ride from his main rivals.
“There’s not much separating the top three teams at the moment,” says Mark. “We all go into each race weekend hoping to be competitive, but we have to wait until Saturday afternoon to know where we are. To come out on top, you have to execute a perfect weekend.”
Fernando Alonso has won twice in Singapore and a victory for him, Mark or either of the McLaren drivers this weekend would keep the world championship fight alive for at least another fortnight.
“Mathematically it’s still possible to stop Seb [Vettel] winning the title,” says Mark. “But the reality is that he’s too far ahead. I cant see him losing it and it doesn’t matter where he clinches it, whether it’s here, in Japan or in Korea. There are a few drivers who would have liked it to go on for longer, but that’s the way it’s gone this year. The racing’s still been great – better than last year in my opinion.”
Given Singapore’s 90-plus inches of rain a year, it seems remarkable that all three of the city’s races to date have been dry. There’s been a lot of rainfall this week already and the weather forecast for Sunday is changeable, but Mark knows the conditions he’d prefer.
“It would be nice to have a dry race because that would be less stressful for everyone involved,” he says. “I think that probably goes for all the drivers at the front. If you’re in a Red Bull, a Ferrari or a McLaren you’ll want a dry race every time because you don’t want to introduce another variable, whereas if you’re in a Williams or further back you want a wet race to mix it up.”
The rainfall has led to cooler-than-average temperatures during the build-up to the race, but none of the drivers are taking any chance ahead of what is the toughest race of the year.
“This is a long, hard race,” says Mark. “It always runs close to the two-hour mark and there’s no let-up for the drivers around the lap. You’re always working, even on the straights due to the bumps, and you get very little ventilation in the cockpit.
“The humidity is tough, so you have to watch your hydration during the build-up to the race. You need to take on lots of fluid because your core body temperature can exceed 40 degrees.”
Credit: Mark Webber (www.markwebber.com)
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