Experiences Around the World

Last night was something I will never forget. It was the first ever Formula 1 night race which was held in Singapore. In a race where there was so much money involved, it was very well planned. To make the drivers feel as comfortable as possible, there were almost 1800 floodlights around the circuit, each 2000 volts.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa led from pole position from Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Alonso fell way back as he was the first one to pit after an aggressive opening stint. After a calm 5-8 laps, chaos erupted. Nelson Piquet had a shunt on the wall resulting in a safety car period. At this point, everyone got the opportunity to gain close to the leaders. As Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were running out of fuel, they had to pit even before the pit lane was open. With all this happening at once, teams didn't know what was happening. When the pit lane finally opened on the 17th lap, there was a huge rush. Massa managed to get to the pit stops when his race fell apart.

When they were re-fueling his car, there was a misunderstanding between the crew and Massa. The green light withing his cockpit told him that he could restart, but the fueling hose was still attached to the car. He knocked over a mechanic and tore the hose away, and fuel sprayed everywhere. He had no option but to stop 500 meters away from his crew and wait for them to remove the hose. As he waited, he lost about 50 seconds. All his hopes of winning a historic race was lost. When he finally joined the circuit, he was last, but there was still worse news. While he was being interrupted by Fisichella for the second last position, news arrived that he had a drive-through penalty for unsafe pitting. Now, there were no chances. He was shattered and all of us could see that with his driving...

Kubica and Roserg were given 10 second drive stop and go penalties for pitting for the pit lane was closed. The Pole's race was over but Rosberg managed to fight his way ahead of Hamilton. This was some improvement seeing that he had to undergo a penalty! With all of this happening, Hamilton was quietly, but skillfully moving ahead in the driver's championship as Massa had no chances of getting a point this race. Equally, Mclaren were able to move a point ahead of Ferrari in the constructors chase.


On the 51st lap, there was another safety car period when Massa spun and an unsighted Sutil crashed. This could throw him a lifeline, but when an irritated Raikkonen crashed while fighting for 4th place, everything shattered.

Without letting anybody notice, Alonso quietly moved up the positions and somehow managed to come first. From then on, he led the race with Rosberg and Hamilton fighting for second place. The race ended with Alonso, Rosberg and Hamilton on the podium.

With far more overtaking than the driver's predicted, Formula 1's first ever night race packed with plenty of excitement, was adjudged a great success...