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Heidfeld finally stops
Adrian Sutil didn't cause a normal accident in Singapore, but it was one that put an end to two all-time sequences held by the innocent victim of the crash: Nick Heidfeld.
The German had built a stunning streak of 56 races without retirements for race accidents, started at the 2006 French Grand Prix.
Heidfeld had also been classified in the last 41 races, and that was also an all-time record.
Ferrari saved by Nick
The Singapore Grand Prix provided Ferrari's worst grid positions since the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, when Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher filled the back row (21st and 22nd) after an engine change for the Brazilian and a penalty for Schumacher.
Ferrari had another troubled qualifying session in the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix, with Schumacher fourteenth and Massa 21st, both affected by ten-place penalties for engine changes.
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Stefan Johansson gets sideways in his Ferrari 156/85 during the 1985 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami © Rainer Nyberg/FORIX |
Heidfeld's penalty helped the Maranello squad to avoid a low point of historical proportions. Had they qualified thirteenth and eighteenth, they would have scored an average grid performance of 15.5, and to find a race with an equally low performance not influenced by penalties, we have to go back to the 1985 South African Grand Prix, when Michele Alboreto was fifteenth and Stefan Johansson sixteenth.
The worst qualifying performance in Ferrari's history came at the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, with Gilles Villeneuve 22nd, and Jody Scheckter, not qualified, in 26th place.
Qualifying notes
• Sixteenth career pole for Lewis Hamilton, who reached Stirling Moss and Kimi Raikkonen in fifteenth on the all-time list. He is now only two poles shy of the best of his active rivals, Fernando Alonso;
• Sebastian Vettel started from the front row for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix and also Mark Webber scored his best grid result since then (he was third);
• Nico Rosberg equalled his best career performance with a third place. He managed the same thing at the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix. Heidfeld's penalty helped the Williams team to score its best combined result of the season with the tenth place of Nakajima (average 6.5);
• With Barrichello demoted to ninth for a gearbox change and Button eleventh, Brawn GP equalled its worst combined result (10.0) set at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Button eighth and Barrichello twelfth;
• It was the best qualifying spot for Timo Glock since the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix, when he obtained the same spot, sixth;
Race notes
• Like Barrichello in Italy, Lewis Hamilton clinched his eleventh win in Singapore, moving up to the 23rd all-time place alongside Rubens, Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa;
• Timo Glock equalled his best career performance, a second place at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix. This is the third podium placement for the German and the first one for Toyota since Trulli's third place back at the Bahrain Grand Prix;
• First podium of the season for Fernando Alonso and Renault. The Spaniard put an end to a 13-race drought, thus avoiding a podium-less season. Fernando since 2003 has scored at least three podiums per season;
• If we exclude the wheel problems encountered by Alonso in Hungary and Belgium this year, the Renault car of Grosjean is the first one to suffer a mechanical failure since the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, when Nelsinho Piquet retired for the same problem that affected Romain: brake failure;
• Before the Singapore Grand Prix, the last double retirement for Toro Rosso came in Spain, and also in that occasion both cars retired on the same lap, the first one, after a massive accident at the second corner. The 2007 Spanish Grand Prix on the other hand was the venue of the last double mechanical failure for Toro rosso, when Liuzzi retired for an hydraulical failure and Scott Speed for a puncture. The only other double retirement for mechanical reasons in Toro Rosso's history is the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix.
