Formula 1 2018 Singapore Grand Prix

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But the Frenchman made it clear that what he described as a "terrible situation" won't be quickly forgotten. Ocon was pushed into the wall on the exit of Turn 3 when he attempted to go round the outside of Perez, and the Mexican moved over on him. The pair talked about the incident when Perez, who finished out of the points, returned to the Force India camp after the race. "He apologised ... ...

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The Marina Bay street circuit was expected to favour rivals Ferrari and Red Bull more than Mercedes, but this didn't stop Lewis Hamilton from taking pole and converting it into a convincing win. Mercedes boss Wolff stressed that a bad weekend in Spa had motivated the team to pull out all the stops as it sought to get back to winning form. “It feels like one of the greatest victories ... ...

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Dealing with lapped traffic proved to be one of the biggest challenges for the leaders on Sunday, with Lewis Hamilton losing time behind the battling Romain Grosjean and Sirotkin at one point. Later on, Valtteri Bottas was left particularly frustrated that he could not get close enough to Nico Hulkenberg on fresh tyres to trigger the warning signals. The FIA only puts out the blue flags when ... ...

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Perez and Sirotkin came to blows at the Marina Bay circuit after the Mexican swerved left into his Williams rival, following mounting frustrations about being held up by the Russian. The crash earned Perez a drive-through penalty for his actions, although some suggested that such an unnecessary clash warranted tougher action and even a black flag. But Whiting did not think that what Perez ... ...

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Hamilton's victory in the Singapore Grand Prix has helped him open out a 40-point advantage over Vettel in the drivers' championship. And on a weekend when a brilliant Hamilton effort in qualifying was in contrast to Vettel putting Ferrari's hopes on the backfoot with a crash in practice, the Mercedes driver is clear about the value of his own performance. "I don't look at it and think ... ...

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Hamilton dominates after pole brilliance Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ leads Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB14 and Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF71H Photo by: Manuel Goria / Sutton Images While Sunday’s race was a stroll for Hamilton, apart from a brief scare when some battling tailenders backed him into Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, it proved another struggle ... ...

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Grosjean received a five-second penalty and two licence penalty points for ignoring blue flags while race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were catching and trying to get past. The Haas driver then became embroiled in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Sergey Sirotkin, eventually passing the Williams before letting Hamilton and Verstappen through. “Romain just completely forgot the ... ...

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The pair touched on the exit of Turn 3 on the first lap when Ocon tried to go around the outside, and his teammate moved over and put the Frenchman into the wall. Szafnauer felt that the Mexican could have left more room. After past incidents, Szafnauer had reminded both drivers before the Belgian GP – where they both started in the top four and the revamped team was restarting on zero ... ...

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Vettel successfully got ahead of Max Verstappen to take second in an opening-lap battle after qualifying only third, and chased Hamilton for the lead through the first stint. An attempt to undercut the Mercedes for first place by pitting a lap earlier then backfired, as Vettel became temporarily stuck behind the yet-to-pit Force India of Sergio Perez and not only failed to jump Hamilton but ... ...

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Force India came into the race with high hopes of a good result with both cars starting in the top 10, but Ocon's race ended in the Turn 3 wall after he was nudged by Perez. While the Mexican continued and comfortably led the 'class B' battle for best of the rest in seventh, his race fell apart when the timing of his pitstop left him stuck in traffic. After complaining for several laps about ... ...

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Alonso started from 11th place at Marina Bay and went on to finish as best of the rest in seventh position, behind the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls. The result was McLaren's best since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April, and the first time Alonso has scored in the last three races. But the two-time champion made it clear after the race that he is not expecting a turnaround in the ... ...

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Vettel had to settle for third place behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Hamilton and Vettel made the best starts of the top three and the pole-sitting Mercedes cut cleanly through the first two corners as second-placed Verstappen had to defend his position from Vettel. Behind them, Sergio Perez nudged his Force India teammate Esteban Ocon into the outside wall at Turn 2, eliminating him from ... ...

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Wolff has been struggling to find 2019 F1 seats for Esteban Ocon and George Russell, and has agreed to release Pascal Wehrlein, allowing the German to pursue a potential opportunity with Toro Rosso as a free agent. He has previously said he sees third cars as the ideal solution for the problem, and although it’s understood that the subject is not currently on the agenda, Wolff said he expects ... ...

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The Belgian is battling to save his F1 career after McLaren elected to not keep him on for 2019, but there appear to be very few options left on the grid. Despite the situation he finds himself in, and another difficult qualifying session in Singapore where he ended up 18th, Vandoorne said that he was far from downbeat about things. "I'm really trying to enjoy the last races with McLaren," ... ...

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Ferrari tried to get through the second qualifying segment on ultrasofts to lock them in for the start of the race, but abandoned the plan after the opening runs and switched to hypersofts as both its drivers were facing elimination. Kimi Raikkonen had told the team that running the harder compound was “pointless”, but Sebastian Vettel believed he could make it through to Q3 with another ... ...

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The case has highlighted how some sporting elements related to Sahara Force India have been carried over to the new Racing Point Force India by the FIA, and others have not. In Singapore the team was found guilty of an unsafe release of Esteban Ocon’s car in FP3, and received a €5,000 fine. However, the stewards’ decision made no mention of the fact that at the French GP the original ... ...

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While praising what he called Hamilton’s “epic” lap Wolff was keen to point that the race team and engine divisions had made progress in recent weeks. “I must really, really take my hat off to the work that was done in the UK, in Brackley and in Brixworth to prepare the car and the engine for this race,” said Wolff. “It was our weakest race track together with Monaco, we were really ... ...

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The Russian and teammate Lance Stroll had little hope of qualifying off the back row, but were left a little shell-shocked that they ended up 1.399 seconds adrift of the next-fastest car. Their pace was the biggest deficit to the front of the grid that they have had all season. Neither driver was happy with how their car felt, and Sirotkin said that qualifying was more about getting through ... ...

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Magnussen was eliminated during Q1, in which Grosjean set the fourth quickest time, and was a bystander as Grosjean went on to qualify eighth overall. "It's frustrating and this whole weekend has been a bit hopeless," said Magnussen. "It doesn't quite make any sense. I haven't been able to find the grip that Romain seemed to have. "From the very first lap it feels like I've been one big step ... ...

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Max Verstappen complained about his engine's power delivery on team radio on Friday and again in FP3. Before qualifying, the team thought it might be looking at the third row of the grid, but Verstappen earned second place, despite having to abort his second and faster run due to an engine cut-out. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was down in sixth. "It was a fantastic lap, and unbelievable ... ...

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Raikkonen topped the times on Friday while teammate Sebastian Vettel lapped half a second quicker than Mercedes in final practice on Saturday.  However, Lewis Hamilton claimed a surprise pole for Mercedes while Max Verstappen beat Vettel to the front row in his Red Bull, and Raikkonen could only manage fifth.  Raikkonen, who lapped 0.779s off the pace and was more than a tenth slower than ... ...

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Vettel headed Saturday's free practice by a comfortable half-second margin, but lost out to both Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in the final battle for pole position. After climbing from the cockpit Vettel lamented what he described as a "messy" session. "For sure I'm not happy with how the day went," said Vettel. "Qualifying for us wasn't as smooth as it should ... ...

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The Dutchman had battled engine problems throughout practice and qualifying, but managed to pull everything together in Q2 to end the first run three tenths down on Hamilton. But when running even quicker on his second run – to leave him in with a chance of grabbing the top spot – Verstappen’s engine cut out and he was unable to improve. “Totally unexpected,” said the Red Bull ... ...

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Mercedes has been vulnerable in Singapore through its all-conquering seasons in F1's V6 turbo-hybrid era, and faded in final practice after running Ferrari close on Friday. However, Hamilton produced a superb lap in the final part of qualifying to claim his seventh pole of the season by three tenths of a second, with title rival Sebastian Vettel in third. "That was a hard qualifying ... ...

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The Mercedes driver set a best time of 1m36.015s on his first run in Q3, with engineer Pete Bonnington telling him "that was an epic lap" after crossing the line. Hamilton abandoned his lap on his second run in the middle sector after running wide out of the Turn 7 right-hander, but had done enough to secure pole by 0.319s from Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Verstappen was on a lap that was ... ...

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“I want to be clear - once, forever,” he said, speaking to the press for the first time on the subject. “Who is so crazy to give a team order to a driver at the start of the race?” His comments followed a bizarre turn of events at the Italian Grand Prix in which Kimi Raikkonen, who was 68 points behind teammate Sebastian Vettel at the time - 214 points to 146 - was seemingly given ... ...

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Green underlined one of the main concerns about F1’s attempt to regulate future styling, namely that teams will always do whatever it takes to make their cars go faster. That could lead to unexpected developments along the lines of the infamous “ugly noses” of 2012. “They’re just concepts, drawings,” said Green when asked by Motorsport.com about the latest images. “What they ... ...

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Vettel's fastest time was three tenths quicker than Raikkonen and over half a second faster than Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen ended the session fifth and sixth, over a second off the ultimate pace. As with FP1, which also began in daylight, many teams waited until a quarter of the session elapsed before heading trackwards. Heavy ... ...

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While F1 tyre supplier Pirelli believes that a two-stop strategy is optimal, maintaining track position is vital at street circuits and any multi-stop strategy carries the risk that a driver might get bogged down in traffic. Many teams have expressed a preference for a theoretically slower one-stop strategy - which may only be possible for those starting outside the top 10. Renault's RS18 is ... ...

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Although there is still some way to go before the ideas become reality – and the final cars may well end up looking different – there are several core elements of them that look like they will be carried forward. Here, we look at some of the key issues that have emerged from the concept images and hear what F1’s managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn has to say about the ... ...

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It is understood that the possibility of raising the kerb was discussed in the drivers' briefing on Friday evening. Instead of the kerb being changed, a yellow line has been added in the run-off behind the existing kerb. Revised event notes from FIA race director Charlie Whiting were issued ahead of final practice, saying that a driver's qualifying lap will be deleted "if any part of a car ... ...

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Hamilton tried to clear Vettel on approach to the Turn 14 right-hander but backed out of the move, only to lock his tyres behind the Ferrari and miss the corner. He darted left to avoid the German and went down the escape road, reversing and carrying on without damage. “Basically I let the guys [Vettel and Force India's Sergio Perez] past and they both backed off, they were going quite ... ...

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Vettel ended the session ninth-fastest after brushing the wall on the exit of Turn 21, abandoning his qualifying simulation lap immediately and heading to the pits. He didn’t return to the action, meaning he also missed out on the crucial race simulation work that teams traditionally carry out in the second half of FP2. “The lap I had up to the kiss to the wall was OK, but I wasn’t ... ...

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Buemi raced for Toro Rosso from 2009 to 2011 and is now reserve driver for both Red Bull teams in addition to his racing roles in the World Endurance Championship and Formula E. The 29-year-old has won both of those championships, as well as this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, and was in the frame for a return to F1 last year before Red Bull picked Brendon Hartley. Toro Rosso is currently short on ... ...

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The Frenchman finished sixth on the road, but was subsequently excluded by the stewards after Renault lodged a protest regarding the Haas car's floor. Haas subsequently appealed, and the appeal will be heard in Paris on November 1. Haas boss Steiner pointed out that it has been many years since a team protested a rival's car after a race, suggesting that there's a gentleman's agreement ... ...

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Raikkonen was fastest early on using ultrasoft Pirellis, setting a best time of 1m40.510s to outpace Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.030s. During the early running, Lewis Hamilton went off up the Turn 14 escape road after a near miss with Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton was closing rapidly on the Ferrari when he locked up into the right-hander, narrowly avoiding hitting the red car. When ... ...

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