Multiple car collision proved a hot potato in Singapore

There is nothing untoward about performing brilliantly. If anything, we all aspire to do so on the grand stage.
For Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, however, a brilliant start is what inadvertently caused the multiple car collision that ended up putting his teammate and championship contender, Sebastian Vettel out of the Singapore Grand Prix seconds into the race.

Not that Raikkonen caused it, rather, both his teammate and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen were unaware of the Finn’s lightning start and they paid a big price for it. The collision took place less than six seconds into the race. It is the kind of accident which had Ferrari fans blaming Verstappen and Red Bull fans blaming Vettel while Lewis Hamilton’s fans stood in shock and awe at the miracle that had just taken place on the first ever wet night race.

It was such a hot potato for FIA stewards that they chose not to investigate the incident nor penalise any of the drivers during the race. After the race, their meeting established that “no driver was found to have been wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident” and therefore no further action was taken.

It’s an assessment that was clearly made with the bigger picture in mind, the quest for competition to be at the core of Formula One throughout the season rather than have a single team sailing smoothly to the championship. Penalising Vettel at this point in the championship would almost certainly hand the title to Mercedes’ Hamilton, and would rub salt into Ferrari’s wounds, the team having posted disastrous results in Singapore.

Penalising Verstappen on the other hand would have made the FIA seem keen on letting Vettel off the hook. By not penalising the front row in a multiple car crash which saw McLaren Honda’s Fernando Alonso become an innocent victim, the FIA let sleeping dogs lie.

That will come as little consolation however for Vettel who failed to pick up any points at the track where he snatched pole in stunning fashion to deny Verstappen the record of the youngest ever pole sitter.

It became the first time at Singapore that Vettel had failed to win from pole position and only the fourth time in Formula One history that the top three drivers have gone out of the race in the first lap. From fifth position, Hamilton found himself first even before the halfway point of the first lap as the safety car was called in. He was soon advised on team radio in the fourth lap to bring the car home in one piece.

Alonso had incredibly made up five positions by the first turn when he was taken out by Verstappen’s skidding Red Bull which had been hit by Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

He continued with the race only to be told to retire the car on the ninth lap. Hamilton had by that time opened a gap of more than four seconds on Ricciardo.

Having outqualified the Mercedes’ pair, it was expected of the Australian to take the lead at some point in the race but with Hamilton gifted the race lead, this was easier said than done.

At one point, even McLaren Honda’s rookie, Stoffel Vandoorne set the fastest lap, proving how unpredictable the race had become. The safety car came out again on the 38th lap owing to a spin by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson. This batched up the cars again but still there was no way for Ricciardo around Hamilton.

The restart of the race saw the clock count down to the 2-hour mark, beyond which for safety reasons, the race can’t be allowed to continue regardless of the laps remaining. Hamilton finished 4.5 seconds ahead of Ricciardo and stretched his championship lead to 28 points with six races to go.

With Bottas finishing third, it means that he is now 23 points behind Vettel, a slimmer gap than the one between the championship leader and the German.