Sep 23, 2011
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The golden rule of racing on a street circuit is put in a lot of laps and keep away from the walls.
All 24 drivers failed to meet the first of those directives as today’s first free practice session was shortened by 30 minutes, because it was decided to move the kerbs at a couple of turns. When it came to keeping away from the walls, Toro Rosso had a fifty-fifty sort of day, in that Sébastien removed the right front corner of his car when he ran wide and did more than brush the wall, thus bringing his FP2 track time to an early close. Shortly afterwards, the team decided to call in his team-mate: Jaime had kept away from the barriers but he’d given the kerbs a couple of hard knocks and the engineers decided it would be prudent to give his TR6 a thorough check-up to ensure there was no real damage. Jaime ended the day eleventh fastest, six places ahead of Sébastien.
All in all, it was tough evening in hot and sticky Singapore and even though this is the fourth year the F1 circus has been coming here, the first time one sees the bright shine on the cars under the thousands of spotlights is still an amazing feast for the eyes. Shining most brightly of all was the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, quickest at the end of the day, on a weekend when there’s a theoretical chance he could become the youngest ever double world champion. He would take the “youngest” tag off Fernando Alonso who was second this evening for Ferrari and they were the only two drivers to break the 1m 46s barrier. Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari. Mark Webber was fifth for Red Bull, with Michael Schumacher sixth in the Mercedes.
Tomorrow night at 7, cars go out on track again to tackle the final hour of free practice. The Toro Rosso boys will have a long job sheet to work through on a track where qualifying later that night will play a more important role than at most races this year: on a tight street track, even the combined technological miracles of KERS, DRS and tyre degradation won’t make getting past a determined rival a very easy task.
The first year of the Singapore Grand Prix, it’s fair to say there was great concern that team personnel would not get enough sleep, struggling to work at night and staying on European time. In fact, most people seem to get more sleep than at any other race, so finding something to do once you’ve read a book and watched films on TV is a hot topic. This year’s Toro Rosso hotel seems to have a firm grasp of our unusual timetable and whatever the hour, you can find team-members working out in the gym or swimming in the outdoor pool. Running round the race track is always an option, but you need to be a particularly dedicated jogger to deal with the heat and humidity of Marina Bay.
Credit: Toro Rosso (www.scuderiatororosso.com)
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