N.B. This thread is for news related to the race and the practice sessions before that. Other banter goes into the existing thread.

Track: Marina Bay street circuit
Laps: 61
Race start: 2000 HRS SIN

This is the second new race venue on the 2008 calendar, also a street circuit but the only one that is run anti-clockwise (against the flow of normal traffic). It is also the first ever F1 race to be held after sunset.

It comprises of 23 mostly-sharp turns that punctuate short straights. This means only Monaco is slower, and if it rains, the 2-hour limit may elapse. Overtaking will likely be very difficult, with the best chances coming at the end of the pit straight and outside the Esplanade Theatres.

Bridgestone have brought the 2 softest compounds to tackle the low-grip conditions. Off the racing line, leaf litter and rubber marbles will compound the difficulty of passing unless it rains before or during the race. A high downforce set-up similar to Monaco and Australia will be used, and the brakes will take a huge battering due to the frequency of usage.

McLaren's appeal to reinstate Lewis Hamilton's race win was deemed inadmissable as it given in-lieu of a drive-through penalty, which cannot be protested. Therefore, he goes into the weekend with a single-point gap over Ferrari's Felipe Massa. BMW's Robert Kubica is a further 13 points adrift in 3rd

Qualifying begins at 10pm on Saturday and the race at 8pm on Sunday. Enjoy the 2 hours of capturing the attention of the world while it lasts!

Singapore Grand Prix free practice session 1 times

1.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m45.518s
2.  MASSA         Ferrari       1m45.598s
3.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m45.961s
4.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m46.463s
5.  KUBICA        BMW           1m46.618s
6.  ROSBERG       Williams      1m46.710s
7.  ALONSO        Renault       1m46.725s
8.  HEIDFELD      BMW           1m46.964s
9.  PIQUET        Renault       1m47.175s
10. BUTTON        Honda         1m47.277s
11. VETTEL        Toro Rosso    1m47.570s
12. NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m47.662s
13. GLOCK         Toyota        1m47.706s
14. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m48.097s
15. COULTHARD     Red Bull      1m48.517s
16. BARRICHELLO   Honda         1m48.725s
17. SUTIL         Force India   1m48.839s
18. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m48.906s
19. TRULLI        Toyota        1m49.064s
20. WEBBER        Red Bull      1m53.703s

Singapore Grand Prix free practice session 2 times 

1.  ALONSO        Renault       1m45.654s
2.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m45.752s

3.  MASSA         Ferrari       1m45.793s

4.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m45.797s

5.  ROSBERG       Williams      1m46.164s

6.  KUBICA        BMW           1m46.384s

7.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m46.580s

8.  BUTTON        Honda         1m46.901s

9.  NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m47.013s

10. GLOCK         Toyota        1m47.046s

11. WEBBER        Red Bull      1m47.137s

12. PIQUET        Renault       1m47.145s

13. VETTEL        Toro Rosso    1m47.300s

14. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m47.487s

15. COULTHARD     Red Bull      1m47.640s

16. HEIDFELD      BMW           1m47.760s

17. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m47.965s

18. BARRICHELLO   Honda         1m48.009s

19. TRULLI        Toyota        1m48.059s

20. SUTIL         Force India   1m48.311s

Singapore Grand Prix free practice session 3 times 

1.  ALONSO        Renault       1m44.506s
2.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m45.119s
3.  MASSA         Ferrari       1m45.246s
4.  PIQUET        Renault       1m45.249s
5.  ROSBERG       Williams      1m45.386s
6.  BUTTON        Honda         1m45.409s
7.  KUBICA        BMW           1m45.425s
8.  WEBBER        Red Bull      1m45.450s
9.  VETTEL        Toro Rosso    1m45.477s
10. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m45.599s
11. HEIDFELD      BMW           1m45.689s
12. NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m45.982s
13. KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m45.982s
14. BARRICHELLO   Honda         1m46.073s
15. GLOCK         Toyota        1m46.180s
16. TRULLI        Toyota        1m46.221s
17. RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m46.482s
18. COULTHARD     Red Bull      1m46.794s
19. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m47.166s
20. SUTIL         Force India   1m47.727s

Singapore GP grid

1.  MASSA         Ferrari      
2.  HAMILTON      McLaren      
3.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari      
4.  KUBICA        BMW          
5.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren              
6.  VETTEL        Toro Rosso    
7.  GLOCK         Toyota        
8.  ROSBERG       Williams
9.  HEIDFELD*     BMW         
10. NAKAJIMA      Williams      
11. TRULLI        Toyota        
12. BUTTON        Honda        
13. WEBBER        Red Bull      
14. COULTHARD     Red Bull      
15. ALONSO        Renault      
16. PIQUET        Renault       
17. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    
18. BARRICHELLO   Honda        
19. SUTIL         Force India   
20. FISICHELLA    Force India

* after three-place penalty for impeding Barrichello

the track is too bumpy for the drivers ):

congratulations to Alonso and Nico.

Ferrari, had fun reaping their own foul karma

Now lets wait for FIA to come up with yet another excuse to penalise Lewis.

And all all the brainless tifosi out there, don't bother with the "but FIA penalised Massa too" line. The FIA only penalises Ferrari when it doesn't make a damn difference. Proof is in the pudding:

1) Massa is released unsafely into the side of Adrian Sutil. Near accident in a narrow pitlane with an even narrower exit(even more dangerous than Sg). Blatent infringment of safety rules. Position at stake: 1st place. Penalty: Reprimand (ooo so harsh!) and a 10,000 Euro fine (ooo so expensive for a team with a budget of around 300mil USD!)

2) Massa is released unsafely into the side of Adrian Sutil (again). Near accident in a narrow pitlane. Blatent infringment of safety rules. Position at stake: 13th place with no points. Penalty: Drive through that makes no difference.

And then the FIA questionably penalises a McLaren driver for something which FIA never did bother clarifying before, and for which some FIA officials actually clarified it to be ok.

Like I said proof is in the pudding. I now await the mindless frenzied barking of the mad dogs er I mean tifosi, as they once again willfully turn a blind eye towards all evidence and just defend their beloved asshole of a poor excuse for a F1 "team", like the mindless ball-less sheep they are.  Go on. Do it and generate more foul karma and maybe the remaining 3 races will all go as great as it did for Ferrari today. Karma is such a funny thing! ^^

love alonso

All drivers looked thoroughly exhausted.... well done Alonso!

alonso = 车神!

Its a sad day for Ferrari. Sian.

alonso is super man

help me win money

Originally posted by seotiblizzard:

Its a sad day for Ferrari. Sian.

Don't understand why Massa decided to pit so late during the SC.... worse of all, both Ferrari decided to pit at the same time.....

Originally posted by seotiblizzard:

Its a sad day for Ferrari. Sian.

ya if they stopped being political shits and taking undeserved inherited wins, they might actually do a lot better. Bad karma ah, what to do, pay off FIA somemore la

Originally posted by gunner77:

alonso is super man

help me win money

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Look at the winners dialogue... they are literally dripping!!!

Originally posted by hmsg:

Don't understand why Massa decided to pit so late during the SC.... worse of all, both Ferrari decided to pit at the same time.....

you... don't know much about racing rules do u? you can't put until pitlane opens, unless u wanna pick up a 10 place stop go penalty. massa pitted immediately as soon as the pitlane opened. of course the point is moot since Ferrari's gotten what they deserve.

Originally posted by youyayu:

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

i so happy now

Maybe we'll see Ferrari switch back to the conventional lollipop at the next race. It's caused them grief 4 times now. =P

the lollipop also is error prone.

well illustrated by DC and his crew.

and theorectically, the computerised system is suppose to be safer.

Originally posted by Pitot:

the lollipop also is error prone.

well illustrated by DC and his crew.

and theorectically, the computerised system is suppose to be safer.

If the lollipop man fidgets, then yes. But tonight, we saw the system give the green light prematurely, and it also doesn't seem to be able to tell if another driver is heading down the pitlane.

i think this is a issue that cant be resolved that easily. For years, accidents like this happened with the lollipop man, just one malfunction by a machine thus far.

Btw, the track has a huge issue, it takes FOREVER to get the dead cars out of the racing line.

Is this due to the fact that with the lighting system, they do not want to risk using those large hook cranes for fear of taking out the lights?

the lift cranes we saw tonight take forever to arrive and leave!

it was funny seeing so many silver mercedes racing down the track with the ferrariss and renalts and Mclarens 

err, wtf?

Originally posted by TehJarVu:

it was funny seeing so many silver mercedes racing down the track with the ferrariss and renalts and Mclarens 

I'm sorry my wedding car convoy took a wrong turn and caused such a commotion. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.