Ferrari sandwich as a miracle for Lewis 🏎🌟🏁

What a weekend of a night race in eye catching Singapore. Three safety cars, eight retirements, wets, inters, slicks, tyre strategies, rain as a miracle for Lewis and Ferrari sandwich for Max. Let's get right into this!

1. Miracle for Lewis 

To say that this wasn't the best weekend for Mercedes means to say nothing. It was terrible. No pace, no chances for the win, nothing really from the leading team and everyone knew this from the very beginning. The team struggled from Friday till the end of Saturday. 

Quali made it not easy for both Lewis and Valtteri as well putting them into P5 and P6 which meant difficult start behind Ferraris and Red Bulls. They were hoping for the rain to mix all the rival's advantage and give the chance to be smarter and quicker and it happened.

But let me take a minute for Lewis' race start. Which was more than amazing. He has chosen the very safe way which helped him not just to overtake everyone at the very beginning but not to become a victim of what happened in front. As team radio claimed he had to bring car home in one piece. As a result - 60th career win, one more podium with a bottle of champagne for British superstar (who is going vegan by the way).

2. Ferrari sandwich 

What happened in front? Well, since it's been a few days from the race we have all the cards opened. Now we clearly know that the one to blame in this crush was Seb. In Ferrari's press release he claimed: "I had an average start and then I moved slightly to the left trying to defend my position from Max. Then I got bumped on one side as Kimi’s car hit me. I’m not sure what happened." As it is clear Seb thinks that nothing has changed for Max and Kimi after their retirements as they are not fighting for anything in the championship right now.

Perfect! So Seb has mistaken and the only person who suffered the most from this  stupid mistake was just himself. Round of applause for Mr. Sebastian Vettel who has beaten the track record in Q3 claiming his pole. 1:39:491 - this is how fast you can go on Marina Bay City Curcuit.

Rain made it quite difficult to beat the times further but it made different tyre strategies possible. The grid has divided into two sides: the ones who started the race on wets and the ones who started it on inters. Probably inters won as Lewis, Dani, Valtteri and those three (I mean Seb, Kimi and Max) in front used them and the other part had to pit and change into them later under safety cars. Slicks were in action after approximately 24 laps so Kevin was the first one to go for ultrasofts as he was fighting with everyone (especially Felipe) wheel to wheel. Carlos, by the way, was the only one to go for supersofts.

3. What podium is it for Daniel?

Wait a minute! I am trying to count as there were too many this season. Dani showed truly unbeatable pace on Friday leading both FPs, he was also good on Saturday but was beaten mostly by his teammate. After well done quali for both Red Bull cars starting the race P2 and P3 everyone thought that Max could finally make it to the podium. Max who had too many DNFs this season while Dani had too many podiums.

But once again. Max became a victim. Not a victim of engine or technical problems as he used to but a victim of that Ferrari sandwich made by Seb mostly. If you don't believe me - just look at this picture and you'll get it.

Although FIA has decided that it was a racing accident and no further action is about to happen here.

4. Retirement competition

Did you see all those jokes about full house DNF in Singapore? I mean Max, Daniil and Fernando. All three of top-DNF drivers this year were out in one single race almost at the very beginning.

Not only Max, Kimi and Seb but Fernando had also retired after that crush-start. Fernando tried to manage driving with his damaged car but couldn't and had to box in the very beginning. 

And, yes, Daniil ended up in a wall. Not super surprising but since his teammate Carlos finished the race P4 with his best career result ever Toro Rosso probably had some chances in Singapore. So Daniil should have been smarter in his pathway after overtaking Kevin but he wasn't.

The last and third safety car in this session was provoked by Marcus being turned in a very thick place after hitting the wall. Not to mention how much Lewis was unhappy with the last SC as he gained a lot of advantage and had to lose it all and fight again at restart. 

Two more DNFs happened in case of some technical and mechanical problems so both Renault and Haas had to lose an opportunity for some really good points as Nico and Kevin had to retire at the very end.

5. Turning point of the championship

Lewis said after the race that the rain was that miracle he needed so much and as soon as it started raining he knew he would win. At the same time Seb who was extremely happy on Saturday gaining probably an unexpected pole was quite sceptic of his own DNF. 

Lewis who was supposed to leave Singapore being the second left it with 28 points above his rival. And Valtteri who by the way risked his life as he couldn't drink in the race blame on the broken bottle is closer to Seb now but farther from his teammate. Ferrari who has not that many tracks left to their advantage  in this championship suffered from double DNF for the first time in its history and probably lost the Constructors cup and maybe even the championship to Mercedes.

6. Contract time 

Mostly important to mention that this weekend not only became the turning point of the championship battle but the turning point for the future as well. Mercedes confirmed Valtteri signing for 2018 as well as Force India confirmed Checo. 

McLaren finally divorced with Honda who goes to Toro Rosso now as well as Sainz "divorced" with Red Bull future going to Renault alongside Nico for 2018. Although his future is still up to Dr. Marco. Now it became clear that Jolyon is probably leaving F1 after an amazing race this weekend which makes the fact just sadder.

We are still not sure about what might happen to Sauber next year as well as Toro Rosso. But it's the question of few races now I must confirm. 

On this point I should close this controversial post and start waiting for Malaysia and more news coming. Stay tuned!