The Singapore Grand Prix was the 14th round of the 2014 season and was won by Lewis Hamilton, who recovered from a late final pit stop to finish 13.5 seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
Daniel Ricciardo completed the podium, with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa rounding out the top five. Here are some post-race thoughts from this year's grid. Ricciardo pleased with podium:
"We were really close to the Mercedes in qualifying and we expected the race pace to be a bit faster today to be honest. We weren’t quick enough in the first stint and we had a few other issues going on, with brakes and some power issues that were coming and going, but in terms of points we still got a good handful to take away from here.
"It actually feels a bit like a home race here. Singapore to Perth is like Melbourne to Perth, so for West Australians it’s not too far. Suzuka is in two weeks and that’s another track we can be optimistic for, so I’m looking forward to that. All in all it was a solid weekend."
"It was great to come here after winning in Monza and start the final leg of the season with such a competitive car. It would have been a really hardcore race if Nico had been at the front, as we clearly had the pace. It was all running pretty comfortably until the safety car came out, which gave me some problems.
"I was driving hard to build the gap but then the tyres started dropping off and I wasn't sure what to do - keep pushing or back off to look after them. So we pitted straight away and I came out behind Seb. But I knew they were on a two-stop strategy and that his tyres were old. I went for it down the back straight - the gap was pretty small and maybe I could have chosen another point on the circuit. But I luckily squeezed through and made it stick.
"Of course, it's not an ideal result with Nico retiring, so that shows we still have work to do to get on top of reliability. But it's been a great job from the team at everyone at the factories to make this mega car. Now we need to keep pushing hard for Japan in two weeks' time."
Alonso - We have made a step forward:
"With hindsight, it’s easy to ask oneself how things would have gone if I hadn’t made a mistake at the start
and the safety car hadn’t come out when it did, but
overall I’m pleased with this weekend, because we
were competitive and were
able to fight with the front runners.
"Sometimes, a safety car can help but I think that today on this
front, we were a bit unlucky,
because at that moment, we were trying to make sure
of second place and our strategy was good. We didn’t have much of an
alternative, because if we had stayed out, the probability was that the stop for the softs would have
cost us more places.
"Even if
in the end, I wasn’t able to get past, the fact we
were competitive right to the finish confirms we have made a step forward. Now,
in Suzuka, a real circuit, we will have a clearer picture of where we are."
"We got the maximum out of our performance today and we had a strong consistent race. I’m pretty happy about this after the issues we had earlier in the weekend.
"I pitted once more than the others during the safety car period but it didn’t affect my position. It was a tough race, especially the last ten laps where the tyres needed a lot of managing, but I think we were able to do a great race today."
Power box failure causes Button retirement:
"I was cueing things up for the end of the grand prix: I’d been looking after the tyres for the whole stint, and I knew the last five laps were when things were going to get tricky for Valtteri ahead of me.
"I’d just switched the car into a different mode, and the chase was starting to get quite exciting. Then, a few corners later, the car just died going into the hairpin. Going across the bridge, it just turned off, so I had to stop.
"I’d been really looking forward to the end of the race, because I definitely think I’d have got past Valtteri. But it just didn’t work out – I was pretty unlucky."
"The race really had everything for me and the final laps were very enjoyable. I was very happy with our performance today and, most importantly, we finished ahead of our direct competitors. Those in front of me at the end had big tyre degradation, but this affected me as well.
"When I caught the train ahead I didn’t have much grip either and this made each one of the overtakes a bit more difficult. We managed our tyres perfectly and to go from P15 to P7 was the reward we deserved. It was a great result for the team; they did a fantastic job with the strategy and it worked very well for both Nico and me.
"Today was one of those results where the race gives you a fantastic feeling: it’s more than just scoring the points - it’s about how you gained the result. Everything gets thrown at you but you don't give up and come back strongly to get the points."
It is almost impossible to score a good result - Gutierrez:
"There is not much to say about the race. At the moment it is almost impossible to achieve good results. We have to extract 120 percent from what we have, but with these issues we are having it makes things complicated.
"There is nothing that I can do to guard against these problems at the moment. We have to look forward to the next races and need to take every chance that we get. Keep fighting will be the most important objective for us as a team at the moment."
"It feels great. It was a fantastic race and I'm extremely happy, especially considering the two 5 second penalties. I had to push as much as possible in the last laps and pull away and this is what I've done.
"I had a lot of fun overtaking the ones in front of me, an incredible race. I did a mistake yesterday in qualifying and I said to the team that I would have done everything for them to forgive me today and I think I could manage it in the end.
"So I'm really happy also for the guys, they gave me a good car and the 6th place repays their big effort, we deserved it. I'm really confident we can have a good end of the season together and I'm looking forward to Japan, where we also have some updates. Hopefully we can improve even further."
Fifth the best I could have hoped for - Massa:
"We changed the strategy from a three-stop to a two-stop after the long safety car period, and the final stint was pushing the tyre to the absolute limit but I managed to make it work. The grip levels were very low in the final few laps but I had a big enough gap to sixth place to ease the car home.
"Given the nature of the track, fifth was probably the best position we could have hoped for this weekend, but I am of course disappointed for the team that Valtteri’s tyres were not able to hold on until the end."
"Today was not the easiest of days for us, but at least there were some positives to take away. We were closer to the Lotus of Maldonado and also to the Sauber of Sutil, so at least we are back to a more typical delta to those teams on this type of circuit.
"It is disappointing that we were unable to get past Ericsson due to brake wear issues. It was quite a demanding race as there were a lot of factors that we had to manage, particularly the brakes. The safety car after Perez’s accident brought the pack back together so any advantage was lost, particularly as we struggled on the prime tyre."
DNS for Kobayashi:
"What a frustrating way to end the race weekend here in Singapore. During the formation lap, all of a sudden I felt no power and then it smelt as if something was burning.
"Then I suddenly lost the brakes so I decided to stop the car because it was dangerous and I had nothing to do. I was really looking forward to this race and it’s a shame not to have been able to get out there and fight, but this happens sometimes in motorsport unfortunately."
No comments:
Post a Comment