Singapore Grand Prix - A Glorious Victory for Fernando Alonso
By Stephen Lars
The Spaniard Renault’s driver Fernando Alonso just conquered his first Formula One Grand Prix win of the year after his win at the Singapore race held last Sunday. Alonso’s chances were very low as the previous day his vehicle was damaged and this situation positioned the driver in the fifteenth place for the race starters.
It had been more less a year since Fernando Alonso had not win a race in the Formula One calendar as his last one had been on September 9th, 2007 at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. This time at the first night race in Singapore, Alonso arrived first timing 1:57:16:304 taking the podium as he did many other times before. In second place arrived the Williams’ driver, the German Nico Rosberg at 2:957 and in third place the leading McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton with 5:917.
Last Sunday the two times world champion achieved his 50th podium appearance in his Formula One professional career. The Spaniard’s come back took approximately 385 days and a total of 19 races before holding a grand prix title. On the other hand, for the Renault team, which is Alonso’s group for this year’s campaign the non-winning streak, summed up 31 races.
As Alonso began the race in the 15th position he had to take some risks and changed his strategy, which he did, we witnessed how he only took two stops and went very low of fuel before making the longest stop. Just at the starting line he won three places right away which became less as in the fourteen lap his teammate Nelson Piquet faced an accident in the safety car exit.
The race development began to change radically the panorama as Alonso was in a more favorable situation, as he was the only one that had passed by the pits to refuel and had a free road to move forward. The German Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) and the Polish Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) were the first to stop a move that cost them the race.
During the 34th lap, the Spaniard took the competition leadership and once at the lead Alonso avoided all possible surprises. He did stop a second time but he managed a distance to allow him to return to the leading pack.
After this race, Lewis Hamilton leads the Formula One world championship with seven points more than the Brazilian Felipe Massa (Ferrari), and a total of 84 points. On the other hand, the South American Massa saw his chances ruined as his team failed in the first refueling. He resumed the race without enough fuel and had to break in for a second stop in the pits zone. It was Massa’s worst nightmare as he began in pole position and finished last with no points.
The Polish Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) ended in the eleventh position at 20 points of the leader followed by the Finnish Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) with 57 points.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on Formula One races, sports news and the online betting industry for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.