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No entries this week in Sergio Marchionne's Monster Book of Fun, for although Singapore qualifying went as expected, with Ferrari looking set to make amends for the embarrassing defeat at Monza, Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes what was a wholly unexpected victory, his third in four weekends. Assuredly, with both his cars gone within seconds of the start, the Ferrari chairman will not have been in genial mood.
It was therefore an odd race, this, with no red in it, just as there had been no silver at the post-qualifying press conference. In relative terms, Marina Bay has always been a bogey circuit for Mercedes, and in qualifying Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had no answer to Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen - nor, for that matter, to Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
Stewards decided no one was 'wholly or predominantly to blame' for the startline crash. Either they - or I - need an appointment at Specsavers
A Red Bull, in fact, was fastest in every session - until Q3, when as usual Mercedes and Ferrari flicked up the power that last notch (a facility sadly unavailable to Renault, let alone Honda). Though this was enough to help Vettel to pole position, it didn't allow Hamilton or Bottas into the top four.
