As is no doubt said in pool clubs roughly every fifteen seconds: when you're hot you're hot. Fernando Alonso in Singapore won his second race on the bounce, and is beginning to look like he may do something crazy and bag his third world title this year. I called Fred a 'dark horse' for the title last week, and am now wondering if I was under-selling him.
This was a smash and grab exercise by Fred in the very best sense of the phrase. Make no mistake about it, this should have been a Red Bull win (or more to the point, a Vettel win), and their failure to do so can be traced back to their being out fumbled for pole position on Saturday. Alonso tends to go into imperious mode when leading races, and he put those skills to their best use in Singapore, despite Vettel's best efforts to put him under pressure.
In reality both Alonso and Vettel were mighty in Singapore, with no one else seeing them. Just like the last race at Monza, we were treated to a tight, tense battle at the front between two drivers at the top of their game. Another parallel was that Webber started in the pack, looked racy, made some nice moves, and scored good points (this time for finishing third) that he may look back on as being key for his championship aspirations.
However, Webber was involved in another (scary) parallel with Monza, in that Lewis aain scored nil points after making contact with another car. In this case, it probably was the sort of crash that the phrase 'racing incident' was invented for (no idea how Webbo's tyre stayed together subsequently). These two DNFs have seriously damaged Lewis's title aspirations - if Alonso's luck is in right now then Lewis's really isn't (yin and yang, obviously). Apparently McLaren have a technical upgrade coming up for the next race, and I'd suggest that they seriously need it (and need it to work). Jenson was steady enough and finished fourth.
Further down, Schumi continued to provide entertainment by driving into everyone.
Webbo continues to lead the championship, 11 points ahead of Alonso's brooding presence, with Lewis and Vettel now 20 and 21 points back respectively. Seb, with his improved recent form, and the pace of the Red Bull, may just about be a man to watch. The next race, at Suzuka, is one in which the Red Bulls are expected to disappear, but so they were at Singapore, so who knows. After that is anyone's guess.
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