The 2011 Singapore Grand Prix, formally the 2011 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, was a Formula One motor race that was held on 25 September 2011 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore. It was the fourteenth round of the 2011 Formula One season and the twelfth time the Singapore Grand Prix had been held. The 61-lap race was won by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, the Drivers' Championship leader, after starting from pole position. Jenson Button finished in second place for McLaren, and Mark Webber completed the podium in third position.
As a consequence of the race, Vettel extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 124 points over Button, who moved up to second place in the championship. Fernando Alonso and Webber, third and fourth in the championship, were eliminated from championship contention. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull extended their championship lead over McLaren to 138 points, with Ferrari a further 85 points behind in third position, and no longer in a position to win the championship title.
Report
Background The build-up to the race was marked by accusations that Red Bull Racing had violated the Resource Restriction Agreement in , accusations that the team denied. The RRA is an agreement between members of the Formula One Teams Association designed to cut costs within the sport. The agreement outlines the teams' projected budgets – including both financial and non-financial elements, such as the amount of time spent using a wind tunnel – for upcoming seasons and limits them to using only as much as they had agreed upon. Following an audit from a Dutch consultancy firm, it was reported that Red Bull had violated the RRA when other teams – including McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Sauber – had passed the inspection.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was handed a five-place grid penalty for the race for causing an accident on the first lap of the . His HRT team added a tribute to Christian Bakkerud onto their cars after Bakkerud, who raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice for HRT principal Colin Kolles' team, died in a road accident on 11 September.
Scuderia Toro Rosso inadvertently broke one of its curfews when team principal Franz Tost arrived at the circuit "too early". Because the Singapore Grand Prix is a night race, it starts at 10pm local time instead of 2pm as the European races do, meaning that the timetable of events is different for the duration of the Grand Prix weekend. The curfew period is officially defined as the nine hours before the first practice session, and therefore takes up daylight hours at Singapore instead of the early-morning hours in Europe. As Tost entered the circuit before the curfew had expired, the team were considered to have used up one of the four waivers to the curfew that all teams were allocated for 2011. Red Bull Racing, Mercedes and Virgin all fell afoul of the different timetable on the Saturday morning. All three teams later had their curfew exemptions restored after they demonstrated that the early staff members who originally broke the curfew were not involved with working on their cars.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the red-banded super-soft compound as the softer "option" compound, as opposed to the previous year where Bridgestone brought the medium compound as the prime.
A single DRS (Drag Reduction System) Zone was used in the race. The detection point was located at turn 4 with the DRS activation point 35m after the turn 5 apex. This resulted in plenty of passing into the turn 7 braking zone.
The race marked the 50th Grand Prix of Sébastien Buemi, who made his debut at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, and was Sebastian Vettel's 50th race for Red Bull Racing.
Free Practice
The first practice session was delayed by half an hour to allow for circuit repairs to take place. Competitors in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia support races dislodged plastic kerbing on Republic Boulevard and Esplanade Drive, forcing the Grand Prix practice session to be delayed while the offending parts were removed and the circuit deemed safe. When the circuit was re-opened, the practice session was shortened to one hour instead of the prescribed ninety minutes. Lewis Hamilton finished the session fastest, four hundredths of a second faster than Sebastian Vettel, who was a second faster than his teammate Mark Webber. Webber had previously had an on-track encounter with Timo Glock that destroyed his front wing and gave Glock a puncture, which ended his session. The session was interrupted several minutes later when Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus T128 caught fire in almost exactly the same place that his car caught alight in 2010. The session was stopped while Kovalainen's car was retrieved, and restarted, only to be stopped again ten minutes from the end of the hour. Felipe Massa had hit a kerb, dislodging it and exposing the bolt that was supposed to secure it in place. The session restarted with three minutes remaining, before the circuit was repaired ahead of the second practice session. Fernando Alonso was fourth, followed by Jenson Button and Massa. Narain Karthikeyan drove the HRT for the first time since Valencia in this session, in preparation for his drive at his home race in India. He finished the session 24th and last, one tenth slower than teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
Repairs to the circuit were carried out before the start of the second practice session with kerbing at Turn 13 removed. When the lights went green, the Lotus mechanics were still trying to rebuild Kovalainen's car. Jenson Button's session ended prematurely when he locked his brakes and stopped just before the wall at Turn 14, and was unable to restart the car; however, the time he had recorded until then was fast enough to be tenth overall at the end of the session. Sébastien Buemi's session was also ended early, when he collided with the barriers at Turn 21, going too fast through the corner and damaging his suspension. Teammate Jaime Alguersuari also had little running before a mechanical problem ended his session, while Paul di Resta's session was also shortened after a hydraulic brakes issue limited him to eight laps in the session. Vitaly Petrov had been scheduled to run upgraded bodywork parts on his Renault R31, but the team discovered the car overheated, and were forced to abandon the new parts until Suzuka. Vettel set the quickest time in the session, two tenths quicker than Alonso, with Hamilton, Massa, Webber and Michael Schumacher completing the top six.
Circuit repairs took place overnight in an effort to improve the kerbing and prevent the race weekend from being further disrupted. The kerbs at Turn 3 and Turn 7 were removed entirely, and replaced with painted markings, with the drivers to be briefed on what would be considered an acceptable racing line through the affected corners. The kerb at the entry to Turn 14 was likewise removed, but with no further plans to replace it, while efforts were made to secure the kerbs at Turn 13 and the "Singapore Sling" chicane. The FIA was unwilling to commit to one definitive plan, instead opting to reassess the situation once the initial work had been completed and again after the third practice session. The drivers expressed indifference towards the changes, with Felipe Massa commenting that "it's not a big change having or not having it", though he did point out that several drivers felt the kerbs at Turn 13 were unnecessary and that the FIA should consider the kerbs at Turn 5, which had previously gone unattended.
Qualifying Qualifying was marked by a distinct spread across the grid, with several teams reproducing similar times between their drivers, comfortably separated from other teams. Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the first period, half a second clear of Jenson Button. As the session drew on, it became clear that several teams were in danger of being eliminated. Vitaly Petrov spent most of the session in 18th, and improved on his final run, but teammate Bruno Senna was faster and relegated Petrov on his final lap. Petrov blamed a small error for compromising his run, briefly losing control of the back end of the car just enough to change his tyre pressures and costing him the tenth of a second he would have needed to advance to Q2. Senna claimed he had been impeded by Jaime Alguersuari on his flying lap, but the incident was not investigated. Heikki Kovalainen qualified ahead of Jarno Trulli, followed by the Virgins of Timo Glock and Jérôme d'Ambrosio and the Hispanias of Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Vitantonio Liuzzi for the second race in succession. Liuzzi received a penalty for causing a collision on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix two weeks previously, but made no effect to his grid position of 24th.
The second session was red-flagged when Kamui Kobayashi crashed at the Turn 10 chicane. Missing the first apex, his Sauber C30 was launched into the air by the kerb on the second apex, throwing him into the barriers. Qualifying was halted while the car was retrieved and debris from the crash cleared away. Kobayashi's crash meant that he would fail to set a lap time and would start from seventeenth on the grid. When the session was restarted, Vettel once again led the way. Lewis Hamilton attempted a second flying lap during the session, but was forced to pit almost straight away when he picked up a puncture in his right-rear tyre. Under the sporting regulations, Hamilton would not be allowed to replace the damaged set of tyres with a fresh one, thereby depriving him of a set of option tyres for the race. Kobayashi's teammate Sergio Pérez was briefly inside the top ten and able to advance to Q3, but was knocked out at the last moment by Paul di Resta; the Mexican driver qualified eleventh ahead of the Williams pair of Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado. Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were fourteenth and sixteenth for Scuderia Toro Rosso, split by the lone Renault of Bruno Senna. Although, this made it the first time since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix that both Force Indias had made it into Q3.
The third session began with four drivers queueing at the end of pit lane, an unusual sight in Formula One, as they would all be running in the dirty air generated by the cars in front. However, with a full lap of the Marina Bay circuit taking almost two minutes to complete, the drivers would have to race to get back to the pits on their in-lap if they intended to make a second run. Jenson Button led Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Hamilton out of the pits. Hamilton later faced criticism for an aggressive move on Felipe Massa at Turn 19 on the out-lap; Massa later slowed down to let Hamilton through, compromising his flying lap as speed carried into the final corner would translate into a faster lap time. Massa questioned why Hamilton felt the need for such an aggressive move as opposed to slowing on his out-lap to allow for clear running. Force India also received criticism when both their drivers again elected to stay in the pits rather than set a flying lap; Mercedes' Michael Schumacher followed a similar approach, but did leave the pits in order to line up ahead of them.