Formula 1's Driver Power Rankings After 2014 Singapore Grand Prix
Formula One's 2014 Singapore Grand Prix was what could be described as a "slow burner."
Nico Rosberg's pre-race electrical difficulties and subsequent retirement proved the most interesting part of a dour opening hour. Gaps were comfortable, tyres were healthy and overtaking was kept to a minimum.
But then Adrian Sutil had a moment of inattention going into Turn 8, and everything changed. The Sauber man drifted across the track, apparently unaware Sergio Perez was trying to go around the outside, and the Mexican had nowhere to go.
His front wing was heavily damaged and bent out of shape. One corner later it failed in spectacular fashion, spraying shards of carbon fibre across the circuit.
The safety car emerged, strategies were compromised and suddenly there was a bit of uncertainty over who might claim the win.
In the end it went to Lewis Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel second, Daniel Ricciardo third and Fernando Alonso fourth.
Note on Power Rankings
These rankings should not be confused with the actual championship table.
Rather than looking solely at points, they also take into account race results, qualifying, overall performance of each driver and how they stack up against their team-mates. The relative pace of each driver's car is factored in.
Only performance at the last six races is considered.
The previous rankings, based on the six races up to and including the Italian Grand Prix, are here. All position changes are relative to positions in that article.
Honourable Mentions
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Two top-drawer performances from drivers just outside the Top 10 resulted in the ejection of Jules Bianchi and Jenson Button.
Both performed well (from the little we saw of them), but lose out on this occasion.
Kevin Magnussen also deserves a mention. His seat and drink overheated during the race and he required the attentions of a doctor afterwards, but still managed to come home 10th.
10. Jean-Eric Vergne
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New Entry
Despite picking up two five-second time penalties, Jean-Eric Vergne drove one of the best races of his life in Singapore.
He qualified 12th, missing out on a spot in Q3 to team-mate Daniil Kvyat by just six hundredths of a second. The result made the 2014 Toro Rosso qualifying duel 8-6 in the Russian's favour.
It was a different story in the race. After seven laps Kvyat was ordered to let the quicker Vergne by, and the Frenchman quickly set about pulling away.
He showed decent pace up to the safety car period and was running ninth when it came in at the end of Lap 37.
But it was his driving after stopping for fresh tyres 16 laps from the end that truly made Vergne stand out.
Making the most of his extra grip, he muscled his way past a string of cars and pulled out enough of a gap that the five-second post-race time penalty made no difference to his final position of sixth.
It was the best result of his career to date. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to be enough to secure him a seat on next year's grid.
Vergne is a new entry at No. 10.
9. Sebastian Vettel
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New Entry
After dominating the race so completely in 2013, a lot was expected of Sebastian Vettel coming into the Singapore Grand Prix.
Car problems in practice saw him lose a lot of running, but he still managed to qualify fourth—half a tenth behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
Vettel jumped the Australian at the start and, with Nico Rosberg out of the way, proved Lewis Hamilton's closest challenger through the first half of the race.
Fernando Alonso used the undercut to pass him at the second round of stops, but the appearance of the safety car played into Red Bull's hands. Alonso's third stop, needed as he hadn't yet run the soft compound tyres, promoted Vettel back to second.
One of the four-time world champion's main weaknesses in 2014 has been tyre management, but he successfully kept his set of softs alive for a mammoth 35-lap stint, maintaining a good pace throughout.
He absorbed Ricciardo's pressure all the way to the line to finish second—his best result of the year.
Vettel is a new entry in ninth.
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8. Nico Hulkenberg
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No Change
Nico Hulkenberg got back in front on Saturday, out-qualifying team-mate Sergio Perez for the first time in three races.
But he was only 13th on the grid—his third Q2 elimination in a row.
He gained a place at the start due to Rosberg's disappearance, then another thanks to an aggressive early pit stop strategy. Though still running out of the points, he looked a decent bet for a good finish.
The safety car came out, forcing Hulkenberg into a much earlier stop than he'd have liked, but he lost only one place. Other cars, which stopped later, suffered more—after Jenson Button retired, Hulkenberg was up to eighth and involved in a fierce battle for sixth.
The German lost places to Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne, but gained one from Valtteri Bottas to come home in ninth.
Hulkenberg stays eighth.
7. Daniil Kvyat
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Down One
Daniil Kvyat out-qualified team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne to start 10th, his sixth Q3 appearance of the season. After a shaky start to the year, the young Russian's average grid slot over the last seven races is an impressive 9.6.
But his race pace was less impressive. He couldn't quite get a handle on the car in race conditions, but there was another issue hampering his charge.
A circuit like Singapore requires incredible levels of concentration, so it's important to stay well hydrated. Unfortunately, it's also extremely warm. In such conditions, a driver can lose up to three kilograms in sweat alone during the gruelling two-hour event.
Kvyat suffered a drinks-bottle failure at the start, and was unable to replenish any lost fluids. The Toro Rosso website said he suffered dehydration from an early stage, which contributed to his poor pace.
He trailed home in 14th, and drops one spot to seventh.
6. Sergio Perez
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Up One
Sergio Perez was again out-qualified by team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, lining up a disappointing 15th on the grid.
He was unable to improve his lot at the start and a decision to stop later than everyone else saw him fall as far down the field as 16th.
After his second stop he challenged Adrian Sutil, who didn't seem to be paying attention as Perez attempted a move around the outside at Turn 8. Perez's front wing was damaged, and one corner later it collapsed under the car, carbon fibre shards littering the circuit.
His third stop was for a new front wing, and after a fourth the Force India man found himself down in 17th with only 15 laps to go.
What followed was truly brilliant. Utilising the higher grip of his fresher tyres, Perez scythed through the pack. Up to 14th after two laps and 11th after 10, he muscled past four cars in the final two laps to claim an excellent seventh.
Perez climbs to sixth.
5. Nico Rosberg
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No Change
Nico Rosberg was beaten to pole by just 0.007 seconds. That's around the same amount of time it takes a typical bee to flap its wings once, and one-twenty-eighth of the time it takes for you to blink.
Second on the grid wasn't a bad place to be, but disaster struck. Rosberg's W05 developed a problem with his steering column wiring loom before the race had even begun. He was unable to get away for the formation lap and ended up starting from the pit lane.
Though he did indeed get going this time, it was clear all was not well. The electronics failure left Rosberg in a low engine mode and with very little power from the car's hybrid systems. He laboured to pass Max Chilton's Marussia, then got stuck behind Marcus Ericsson's Caterham.
When he came in for his first stop, it was at a crawl. He stopped but was unable to get going again and retired from the race.
We'll never know whether he could have beaten Hamilton.
Rosberg stays fifth.
4. Valtteri Bottas
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Down Two
The Williams was never going to be a podium challenger in Singapore, but its one-lap pace was decent. Valtteri Bottas qualified eighth, two places below team-mate Felipe Massa, after an error on his final flying lap.
Eighth was where he spent the opening laps too, sat behind Jenson Button's fast-starting McLaren. A slightly early pit stop saw the Finn jump ahead of the McLaren into seventh and a similarly timed second stop moved him up to sixth.
But the early stops came back to haunt the Williams man when the safety car came out. The team decided to leave him out to the end on tyres which would by then be 37 laps old.
Bottas used the impressive straight-line speed of the FW35 to hold off a string of quicker cars, but his tyres were rapidly losing their grip.
A power steering issue increased the wear on the Pirellis, and by the final lap he was hanging on by a thread, the rear end of the car sliding wildly.
It looked like seventh would be his reward for a gutsy defensive display, but he was unable to slow his car enough going into Turn 14. Bottas eventually made the corner, but was shuffled back to 11th.
That's where he finished—the only time in 2014 he has been classified outside the points.
Bottas didn't do a lot wrong, but it's tight at the top. He drops two spots to fourth.
3. Fernando Alonso
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Up One
Fernando Alonso qualified his Ferrari in fifth, a little over two-tenths of a second off pole. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who only managed a single Q3 run, was seventh.
As is customary at Singapore, Alonso made a blistering start. He passed both Red Bulls on the short run down to Turn 1, but a lock-up forced him across the run-off area. He emerged in second, but chose to hand the place to Sebastian Vettel rather than risk a penalty.
He kept in touch with the Red Bull during the first two stints, then opted to try the undercut at his second stop. He succeeded, and looked a strong bet for second—then the safety car came out.
The Spaniard was forced to stop again to fit the soft tyres, dropping him back down to fourth behind the two Red Bulls. Though he closed up late on, he didn't have enough pace to challenge and will have been disappointed to miss the podium.
But it was a fine display, and Alonso rises one spot to third.
2. Lewis Hamilton
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Up One
In the dying seconds of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton stole pole from team-mate Nico Rosberg by just 0.007 seconds. It was the smallest gap between pole and second since the 2010 German Grand Prix.
Rosberg was unable to get off the line at the start, so it looked like the race would be a walk in the park for Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel kept him honest in the first half, but never really threatened to catch the Brit.
Then the safety car emerged and everything changed.
The cars behind could run to the end on their tyres, but Hamilton needed one final stop to switch to the softs. As the safety car returned to the pits, Hamilton floored it and embarked on an awesome series of laps in an effort to build a lead of one pit stop—around 27 seconds.
Mercedes' Twitter feed got a little bit excited:
"10 LAPS TO GO @LewisHamilton! This is getting mighty tense! Come on... COME ON!!! #F1 #SingaporeGP #RadioSinga
— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) September 21, 2014"
He couldn't quite build enough of a lead and emerged just behind Vettel with eight laps to go. But the German's tyres were heavily worn, and he put up no resistance when Hamilton blasted through.
It was his seventh win of the season, and he regained the lead of the drivers' championship for the first time since before Monaco.
Hamilton rises one spot to second.
1. Daniel Ricciardo
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No Change
In the closest qualifying session of the year, Daniel Ricciardo qualified third, a tenth clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel and less than two tenths shy of pole.
Nico Rosberg's disappearance from the grid bumped him up to second, but he dropped to fourth off the line as Vettel, then Fernando Alonso, got better starts.
The Ferrari man was already ahead of both by the first corner, but cut across the run-off area on the outside. Though he gave one place back, to Vettel, he should perhaps have also let Ricciardo through.
But he didn't, and as the race settled the Australian found himself in fourth, where he remained until the safety car came out.
It played into his hands, bumping him ahead of Alonso and perhaps within striking distance of Vettel, but his RB10 developed an intermittent battery issue, meaning he frequently lost power.
He came home third, right on Vettel's gearbox, for his seventh podium of the year.
Ricciardo is now "just" 60 points off the world championship lead, and remains in first place here.
As is often the case, these rankings have a strong element of opinion attached, so your views will probably differ to mine. Feel free to comment with your own rankings, or where you feel I went wrong.
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