Zoom Zoom: GP 18-Singapore! Hot and Humid! Paws to Heaven for Roscoe, a messy P2 session, and two trophies lifted on Sunday!
- Colby Michaels
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Howdy Zoomies After a week off, we return to the humidity hell that is the Singapore Grand Prix, a true street race on the circuit if there ever was one! Before the race weekend started though, we F1 fans learned the sad news that Lewis Hamilton's best friend, his dog Roscoe, had passed away after 13 years. Lewis thanked the many fans around the world for their support, and said, "If grief is the last stage of love, then I am grieving." Lewis will be racing with a heavy heart this weekend. I've collected some pics below of the adorably unofficial king of the paddock below- rest in peace, Roscoe!
Driver/Team line-ups: Swap Lawson and Tsunoda, Colapinto replaces Doohan.
Off to the Practice sessions three sessions at 60 minutes each!
P1: Humidity is high (surprise!), so some drivers will be wearing a special vest with tubing that has cold water flowing thru it to keep the body temperature down while in that drivers seat. Eight minutes in William's Racing driver Alex Albon is in the pit lane as a lot of smoke is coming from the brake fire that has broken out in the rear of his car! Alex's P1 is done for the day. No further incidents, but I will mention that the wily veteran Fernando Alonso of Aston-Martin did have the best time in this practice!
P2: 82 degrees, 80 percent humidity for a gorgeous but hot, and oppressive night race for Practice 2! The lights at this track and around it, make it a stunning visual! Albon's Williams car has been repaired, btw. 18 minutes in, Mercedes George Russell hits the barrier and loses his front wing and a tyre puncture on Turn 16, evoking a RED FLAG. Georgie's P2 session is done. Debris cleared, and practice starts with 30 minutes left. RED FLAG after four minutes in, as Sugar-Free Red Bull's Liam Lawson's car takes Turn 16 too wide and side slide crashes into the wall on Turn 17, (he's ok), as his front tyre pops off the rim, and merrily rolls down the track on it's own race pace! Liam's P2 session done for the evening. 14 minutes left in the session, and chaos in the pit lane as Ferrari's Charles LeClerc, coming out of the garage, rams McLaren's Lando Norris front wing !!
Someone on that Ferrari pit crew is in BIG TROUBLE! And How did Charles NOT see Lando already on the pit lane??? I have memories of seeing this kind of collision over parking spaces at Costco! Ferrari/LeClerc under investigation for "unsafe release", DUH! Ferrari/LeClerc did get fined for that unsafe release. Both Lando and Charles back on track for the final 10 minutes of practice. No further incidents, other than Oscar giving us a giggle about "stiff knobs".
P3: 86 degrees and 70 percent humidity for this day three practice. 15 minutes in, and a RED FLAG on Turn 7, as , oops, he did it again, Sugar-Free Red Bull's driver, Liam Lawson beaches his car on the curb, and mildly crashes into the wall (he's ok!), and undoes all the work the Sugar-Free mechanics did on the right side of his car (all tyres stayed on though!). Restart with 35 minutes to go. No further incidents, so its off to Qualifying under the lights!
Q1: 18 minutes for fastest/best lap. 86 degrees, 70 percent humidity at night! The Sugar-Free RB's mechanics pulled off a miracle in the few hours before quali, as they were able to piece back together Liam's car! No incidents until the very end, where Pierre Gasly's Alpine car calls it a day as it completely shuts down on him. So, bottom 5 are: Gasly and Colapinto of Alpine, Bortoleto/Sauber, Stroll/Aston-Martin, and Ocon/Haas.
Q2: 15 minutes. No incidents so next bottom 5 are: Albon and Sainz of Williams, Lawson/Sugar-Free RB, Hulkenberg/Sauber, and Tsunoda/Red Bull.
Q3: 12 minutes. No incidents so your top ten grid is: George Russell/Mercedes on pole position, Verstappen/Red Bull-2nd, Piastri/McLaren-3rd, Antonelli/Mercedes-4th, Norris/McLaren-5th, Hamilton and Leclerc/Ferrari-6th and 7th, Hadjar/Sugar Free RB-8th, Bearman/Haas-9th and Alonso/Aston-Martin- 10th. After the race, F1 DQ'ed both WIlliams drivers, Sainz and Albon, for having their rear wing DRS flap exceeding regulations, and they will start in the back of the grid for Sunday's GP! Singapore GP: 62 laps, 19 turns. It rained earlier, but track is mostly dry but the curbs are still slick. Drivers are either going with Hard or Medium Tyres, while Max is going with Softs. Pierre Gasly will start from pit lane due to changes to his Alpine car, btw. And with that, its LIGHTS OUT, and Georgie makes a clean breakaway from Max on up to Turn 1 and beyond, while Lando has his elbows out, and bumps his teammate Oscar to jump from 5th to 3rd! Oscar, who is so laid back, he is vertical, is chafed by said Lando action, and expresses his displeasure on team McLaren radio. From all the pro racing folks I've heard from, it WAS a clean, legal move, maybe just not very nice to do to your teammate, but recall, both Papaya boys are in the hunt for the Drivers Cup, and this may signal a "gloves off" in the remaining races.
Umm....after that, this was a pretty clean, neat and tidy ( only one brief yellow flag) race. Georgie, Max , Lando and Oscar basically held those four positions (only switching around during what I know understand to be the "undercut"; if you are behind a driver and plan to get in front of him, pit and change tyres, and hopefully come out in front, or wait while that lead driver has to go and pit for new tyres...basically the fresher the tyre, the better chance for an overtake or taking the lead while the lead driver pits for new tyres. Carlos Sainz blew my description off the track by going over 50 laps before he pitted to change tyres!
Anyhoo, of note, Oscar's fate was sealed on his pit stop, when the rear left was being fussy, costing Oscar a 5.2 second pit stop, and forever in fourth (he did make a go at it in the end in case any of the top 3 decided to have their wigs...errr...helmets snatched at the very tricky Turn 13.). Fernando was having A DAY himself, at one point telling team Aston-Maritn radio that he would shut OFF the radio if they chirped in one more time!!!! Then after that (karma?) Fernando pits, and the pit crew guy could not get his lug nut to stick to the rim of the tyre, (Will I need to see the stewards for that sentence?? <grin>) , and Fernando finally left the pit after spending almost a lifetime (12 seconds), in the pit! However, the wily veteran worked his way from the back of the field to get into the points! A big reason he was voted by fans for Driver of the Day! Another note worth mentioning is that Lewis went the last two laps basically without brakes to barely cross the finish line!
Your 2025 Singapore GP champion is George Russell, who drove a near perfect race in his Mercedes car, followed by Max, then Lando, Oscar, Kimi, Charles, Lewis, Fernando, Ollie and Carlos picking up the last point in 10th! Post-race, it looked like half the drivers were ready to puke or pass out, due to heat/humidity that is the Singapore GP!
With Lando finishing on the podium for Team Papaya, that secured the Constructors' Cup for McLaren for the 2nd year in a row, just did it much earlier than the last race last year! The battle now will be among Mercedes, Ferrari (not with the cars they had today!) and Red Bull for 2nd and the big bucks that come with it!
Another week off, then it's off to Texas for the US GP!
RIP Roscoe. ❤️
So interesting about their super fancy liquid vests to keep them cool in that oppressive heat! They’re definitely earning their money stuffed into a small, hot car in that weather!
Poor Roscoe, RIP.
Team Papaya won the constructors championship. Interesting if Max upsets the Papaya dominance of 2025.