After 1st race - Bahrain

The season finally got underway with the Bahrain GP. Wow!!! Ferrari did very well, finishing 1st and 2nd. Schumi also did pretty well, finishing in 6th in his first F1 race since coming out of retirement.

Drivers table now looks like this:

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	25
2	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	18
3	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	15
4	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	12
5	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	10
6	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	8
7	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	6
8	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	4
9	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	2
10	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	1

Ferrari now leads the Constructor's championship by more than double the points from closest rival .... McLaren-Mercedes. The Constructors table look like this after the 1st race:

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	43
2	McLaren-Mercedes	21
3	Mercedes Benz GP Ltd	18
4	RBR-Renault	16
5	Force India-Mercedes	2
6	Williams-Cosworth	1
7	Renault	0
8	STR-Ferrari	0
9	Lotus-Cosworth	0
10	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

Singapore F1 Grand Prix

This year, I chose to stay at home and watch the Singapore Singtel Grand Prix on TV. I must say that the feeling is just not the same. Last year, I bought tickets and experienced the F1 by the trackside. You just do not feel the vibration when watching it on TV.

The race started with much incident with Hamilton in the lead at Turn 1, and the rest of the pack made their way round Turn 1 safely. The 2 Brawn cars made up some track position after a good start. Compared to last year, the Safety car was called upon only once. This was when Adrian Sutil had spun his car and poor Nick Heidfeld's car crashed into the Force India's car. Heidfeld damaged his right rear wheel and was forced to retire, while Sutil was still able to drive his "noseless" car into the pits. Safety car was out for a number of laps and it took a brave track marshal to clear the Force India's nose off the track.

After the Safety Car returned to the pit lane, Vettel was applying good pressure on Hamilton, till he had to do a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding. Mark Webber crashed his car when his car's brakes failed.

After the 61 laps, it was not a driver or team in the chase for the championship titles . The podium was filled by McLaren (Hamilton), Toyota (Glock) and Renault (Alonso).

I think Alonso did a fantastic race, putting behind him the crashgate scandal. It was a well deserved 3rd place for Alonso. Rumours has it that Alonso will be driving for Ferrari next season ... Can't wait to see him in the red car.

Really missed the loud engine noises ... think I will buy myself tickets next year.

Renault cheated?

Seems like Renault has thrown in the towel and decided not to fight the allegations of fixing the 1st ever Singapore Grand Prix. Top 2 men resigned and that could mean that Renault is admitting to the allegations.

Fernando Alonso won the first ever Singapore night race, after surprising everyone with a really early pitstop on lap 12. Renault had earlier (before the race start) hoped for a safety car incident on a very unfamiliar track, so that Alonso could take advantage of an early pitstop. Coincidentally, Piguet Jr crashed on Lap 14, bringing out the Safety Car. From then on, everything played to the Renault's tune.

Fernando Alonso claims he does not know that and now he has an uphill task of trying to defend his Singapore GP crown under all these allegations.

For me, I am hoping that Ferrari could get onto the podium to overcome the disappointment at the 1st Singapore night race.

Go Ferrari !!!

Waiting for the Singapore F1 GP ...

It's about 1 more month to the Singapore F1 Night race. I am really looking forward to that, though I have not gotten my tickets. Still hesitating.

It was nice to see Ruben win the Spanish GP and Kimi taking the last podium spot for Ferrari. Badoer was a bit disappointing to watch. Given the many years he had as a Ferrari test driver, I was expecting him to do much better. Imagine this ... he was testing cars to ensure the cars are perfect for Schumi and other Ferrari drivers, and he kinda screwed up on his debut. Nonetheless, hope to see Badoer do better in the next race.

Massa wins the race .. but Hamilton wins the "war"

The 2008 F1 Grand Prix has officially ended with the completion of the Brazilian F1 GP. Hometown hero, Massa, led from start to finish to take the chequered flag. You can imagine the joy on Massa's face when he crossed the line. However, that joy soon turned to tears a few seconds later. Hamilton dramatically overtook Timo Glock on the final turn to cross the finish line in 5th position to claim the Drivers' Championship title by a single point.

Nonetheless, Massa took his lost of the drivers' championship title graciously. And I must say, Hamilton definitely kept his cool and deserved to win the title. Of course, the Constructors' title went to Ferrari, for the 16th time.

What a season!!! For me, it was a great F1 season, especialy when the F1 rolled into Singapore for its first ever night race. I cannot described the feeling of being at the Singapore F1 race, the lights, the sounds of the F1 roaring past you, and the thrill of trying to capture a F1 car (speeding past you at high speed) on my DSLR camera. That was really a test of my amatuer phtography skills. I will be looking forward to 2009 when the next season starts again, with the Singapore GP being the key interest on my calendar.

Pictures from F1 support races.

The Porsche Carrera Race ..... with our very own Singaporean drivers.




THe BMW Formula race .....

The Aston Martin race ... featuring Aston Martin DB8s

Guess not many people are interested in these 3 support races as the majority of the crowd only started streaming into the circuit around 6pm.