{"id":5800,"date":"2018-09-15T19:17:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T18:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/f1vault.co.uk\/?p=5800"},"modified":"2018-09-15T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T18:17:21","slug":"notebook-singapore-qualifying-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/notebook-singapore-qualifying-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Notebook \u2013 Singapore Qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton has beaten Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen by three-tenths of a second to take pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix. The four times champion pulled out one of his \u201cepic, sexy lap\u201d laps to beat the Dutchman on his first run in Q3.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was forced to back out of his second run after he ran wide at Memorial corner as Verstappen was gaining in the first and second sectors. However, the Dutchman was slow in the final start-stop sector, but says the front row \u201cfeels like a victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pole lap \u2013 L. Hamilton 01:36.015<\/em><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton comes around the final two corners heads for the outside putting the power down the straight to start the lap. He brakes a 120m into Sheares coming from the outside slows the car right down hits inside and outside kerb. Stays at low speed through three heading to the outside gets the power down, brakes intro five briefly. Gets the power down going through six, he is up three tenths in sector one.<\/p>\n

He breaks 60m before the Memorial corner, rounding it from the outside and hits the outside kerb on exit. Crosses back to the inside, he slows crossing to round the ninety degree Stamford goes to inside on exit. Speeds up on the short run to Padang,\u00a0 takes it in a similar way. Builds speed going towards Sling breaking mid-corner and keeps power down. Breaks through the old chicane before power down across Anderson Bridge, breaking for thirteen. He then gets the power down on the last straight and is now a second up.<\/p>\n

He breaks 50m before Connaught, which he comes from the inside and rounds the apex. He then gets the power down through the last flat part and breaks 50m before sixteen nice through the ninety degree Esplanade. Runs along the harbour towards Bay, where he breaks and says at low speed under the stadium. Bit of power on the way to twenty, before breaking exiting twenty-one he gets the power down. He carries that to twenty-two, lifting slightly before power down and across the line with a 01:36.015.<\/p>\n

\u201cFelt like magic\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton says that his pole lap “felt like magic” and was one of the best he could remember. The Mercedes driver was three tenth faster than Max Verstappen and six tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel<\/p>\n

Hamilton had lapped half a second slower than Vettel’s Ferrari in final practice and so such a turnaround in qualifying had not been expected.<\/p>\n

The four times champion, told Sky Sports, \u201cI don’t know where it came from but it all came together. “Honestly, I’m super overwhelmed. My heart is racing. I don’t think there was a moment in the lap that was wide or any problems. It was just perfectly to the limit. It felt like one of the best laps I remember feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton had been half a second slower in FP3, and the turn around had come as a surprise like many he was unable to improve on his second run.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot good enough\u201d \u2013 Vettel<\/em><\/p>\n

Sebastian Vettel has described his performance in qualifying as \u201cnot good enough\u201d after being pushed into third. The Ferrari driver had been comfortably ahead in FP3, but in the final moments of Q3 he was unable to break into the top two.<\/p>\n

Vettel, along with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen was unable to improve his time in the closing moments as Hamilton\u2019s 36.0 stood from the first runs. The German said \u201c”For sure I’m not happy with how the day went. Qualifying for us wasn’t as smooth as it should have been, other people obviously have done better than us, and that’s why we’re third.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not worried about the gap [to Hamilton], I don’t think it shows how strong we are. It’s just disappointing that we didn’t get the maximum out of our package.\u201d Vettel made it through Q1 easily, but his Ferrari team put him at risk of dropping out in Q2, before struggling to get a clean lap in the latter part of Q3.<\/p>\n

He added \u201cI don’t think there’s much point in going into detail\u2026 maybe preparing the lap for qualifying, but in the end I had the laps and they were not strong enough or good enough to be near.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best qualifying of career \u2013 Verstappen <\/em><\/p>\n

Max Verstappen says his second place in qualifying makes it his best of his career, after the Dutchman was forced to run his car in a reduced setting because of an engine issue.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull driver was the only real challenger to Hamilton, but he remained three tenths off. Verstappen had been a tenth up in the second sector, before a momentary loss of power, giving Hamilton a clean run after he aborted the lap.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cQualifying was the same story so we had to detune the engine and lost a bit of time there to try and make the drivability better, but it still didn’t work like it should do. So going into Q3, I felt that the car was working well and I didn’t really have anything to complain about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw second place on the board, I was actually quite surprised given the problems I had. On my final run, I tried to push a bit more, and I was two tenths up when I arrived to Turns 16 and 17 and then when I tried to short shift, the engine just cut out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Verstappen says he has no concerns about the potential for an engine failure in the race.<\/p>\n

Tyres put Renault at disadvantage \u2013 Sainz<\/em><\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz believes that Renault\u2019s struggles to look after their tyres could put the team at a disadvantage when it comes to strategy in the race.<\/p>\n

Tyre supplier Pirelli has predicted a two-stop strategy is the best. However, the teams, especially the top teams, know that a multi-stop strategy carries the risk of being caught in traffic. Teams are all looking at doing a slower one-stop strategy in theory.<\/p>\n

Renault’s RS18 is less sympathetic to its tyres than many competitors, which enables its drivers to unlock one-lap pace but at the expense of rapid degradation when attempting longer stints. The issue is more acute on Pirelli’s hypersoft compound, introduced in Monaco this year.<\/p>\n

Sainz told Autosport \u201cNo one wants to stop twice and it’s looking likely for us as things stand. But we’ll work to see how we can fix that degradation. We know it’s there. We know it’s been there all season and we know we have improved, but it’s still our weak point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyre deg could be a key factor in the race as the circuit is hard on tyres that why Pirelli opted not to bring the supersoft. many teams registered almost 1.5 seconds difference in lap time between the soft, ultrasoft and hypersoft.<\/p>\n

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