Poor pace and another Hamilton DNF hits title hopes (McLaren race review)
Lewis Hamilton’s third no-score in four races following his controversial collision with Mark Webber has hit his championship hopes hard.
But just as worrying for him and Jenson Button was McLaren’s lack of pace around Singapore.
| Jenson Button | Lewis Hamilton | |
| Qualifying position | 4 | 3 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q3) | 1’45.944 (+0.373) | 1’45.571 |
| Race position | 4 | |
| Average race lap | 1’56.458 (-4.342) | 2’00.800 |
| Laps | 61/61 | 35/61 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 1 |
Jenson Button
Button had the edge on pace over his team mate on Friday but that changed overnight and it was Hamilton who headed the all-McLaren second row.
Although Button got away slightly better than his team mate Hamilton braked later into the first corner and re-took third place.
Neither McLaren could maintain the pace set by Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Button dropped back slightly more quickly than Hamilton and after lap 22 they were both in serious trouble, losing around two seconds per lap (compare their lap times here).
Button pitted one lap after Hamilton and fell behind Mark Webber. But he inherited fourth place when his Hamilton dropped out of the race.
Compare Jenson Button’s form against his team mate in 2010
Lewis Hamilton
His first lap in Q3 put him second on the grid but he couldn’t improve with his last run and slipped to third behind Vettel.
He came under little pressure from Button, but he couldn’t do anything about the two cars in front of him.
Nor could McLaren do much to prevent him from losing third place to Mark Webber.
Hamilton seized an opportunity to reclaim the place at the second restart. But he came off worse in a collision that was plainly a racing incident and only invited different interpretations because two major title contenders were involved.
Compare Lewis Hamilton’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 Singapore Grand Prix
- Technical review: Singapore Grand Prix
- Webber: Ferrari have momentum (Video)
- Final tracks suit McLaren better – Button
- No change in my approach – Hamilton
- Williams expect to keep up with Renault
- 2010 Singapore Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Who was the best driver of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
- Fourth win of 2010 is Alonso’s best yet (Ferrari race review)
- Poor pace and another Hamilton DNF hits title hopes (McLaren race review)
- Webber has champion’s luck but lacks Vettel’s pace (Red Bull race review)
Image © www.mclaren.com
Icthyes (@icthyes) said on 28th September 2010, 10:19
In my view, 51-49 to Webber simply by being the one behind. He didn’t have to do anything, so no real “fault”, but if there absolutely had to be blame for this it would go to Mark.
Paulo said on 28th September 2010, 13:09
Do people really think McLaren will win in Suzuka?! Given the level of downforce the RB6 generates in mid to high speed corners the only team that can stop Redbull in Japan are Redbull themselves
Red Andy (@red-andy) said on 28th September 2010, 15:13
Red Bull tend to be quite good at stopping themselves, though. But in any case, will McLaren overhaul Ferrari at Suzuka? I’m not convinced.
Paulo said on 28th September 2010, 16:58
Agree with that
DaveW said on 28th September 2010, 19:03
How it pains me, but I now suspect the Ferrari is on terms with RBR. You don’t beat RBR at Monza, and then at Singapore, successively, if you have some kind of conditional weakness. Plus, they have Alonso. When he is on his day Webber and Vettel will not touch him.
I don’t think McLaren will be far back, though. They had good pace at Turkey, and at Valencia, and were not rubbish at Silverstone, despite their major set up issues there. Hungary and Germany were their Valencia relative to Ferrari, as they were sorting their EBD in those rounds. Since then, they have been pretty strong. I’m going to put their graining issues down to set up in Singapore. It’s going to be very close going forward.
However McLaren need to see Korea stay on the schedule. I expect to see Whitmarsh himself flogging a bulldozer if it comes to it.
CapeFear said on 28th September 2010, 13:16
Mclaren need to make their cars stronger, Ferrari and Red Bulls can take huge hits and carry on like hard knocks. You just sneeze on a Mclaren and it falls to bits. First the Wheel Rim breaking, the steering wheel light going off, wheel contact that wasn’t really hard in Monza, seen worse from other teams and now this contact. Shouldn’t a rear suspension be stronger then a front? How can Ferrari take a 40 mph+ impact and keep going???
Mclaren don’t look to deserve the title this year last time 1998, it’s going to be that way for a very long time, unless Ferrari have engine issues.
Ferrari have really impressed, they’ve done what Mclaren usually do and caught up and overtaken. As much as I’m a Mclaren fan I have to say they’re sitting in third now. They need better designers and strategists and some common sense!
judo chop said on 28th September 2010, 21:35
Steady on. In the first half of this season it was RBs and Ferraris that were seen as fragile.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 28th September 2010, 22:56
I don’t know about “and Ferraris” – they’ve had one engine failure in a race. Massa and Alonso have completed more racing laps than all the other drivers.
Manatcna said on 28th September 2010, 22:53
Well, although I don’t want to spread alarm & despondency, I think both championships have already slipped away from McLaren.
(McLaren supporter)
Paul said on 2nd October 2010, 21:07
All it takes is one DNF for Webber,and Lewis will be right back up there.
Anyway,Karma-Webber has hit and bullied his way past too many this season-and he’s not a particularly world class driver-he won’t win this year-it will be down to Lewis and Alonso in the end.
Red Bull always manage to have 1 of their drivers mess up in every race-after all- they don’t have the pedigree of either Ferrari or McLaren -they’re an energy drink backed team of boy-racers-wait and see.