Bitchin Rides. Tuesday @ 9pm - 11pm (VelocityHD) new
Wheeler Dealers. Season 14 premier (sans Ed China) Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new
Garage Squad. Wednesday @ 10:10pm - 11:10pm (VelocityHD) new
After the amazingly unscriptable outcome of the first rainy race in Singapore, the Drivers Championship is no longer close. Ferrari suffering a brutal double-DNF on the first lap (one-upping Mercedes-AMG in 2016) and some fortunate crash avoidance as well as race management and Hamilton is now up 28 on Vettel. Bottas is now breathing down Vettels' neck in the standings. This track has been favorable to the Ferrari and Red Bull for years and qualifying continued in that tradition, Hamilton qualifying in 5th, Bottas in 7th. Vettel put together an historically fast lap top out pace Ricciardo and the young Verstappen for pole, emotional due to what Ferrari needed to change their fortunes for this second half after Mercedes strong showing in Monza. Then the race started with wet start in moderate rain, under the nighttime lights in Singapore; Verstappen has a good run on Vettel, Raikkonen has an even better run up the inside line coming into turn 1, then Vettel pinches Verstappen who is tagged by Kimi who had no where to go, then some ping ponging took place, Vettel takes a wheel to the side pod, but keeps going, Kimi and Max are in a pile of carnage, Alonso gets tagged and spun, but gets back on it. Hamilton goes to P1 in an instant, coolant pours out of the side of Vettel's car, spinning him out a few corners later and all of the mid-pack teams go for it, looking to cash in on the fortune shone upon them. Alonso later retired, his damage lead to other problems, all said about 8 drivers DNF'd. The multiple safety-car deployments, native to this race, kept Ricciardo and Hams close, but his pace delta on the Mercedes from over the weekend didn't prove out on this day; Hams wasn't under serious pressure and Bottas has a pretty uneventful run in 3rd. Palmer was the only Renault to score points because Hulks' car let him down, but he's still out of a seat next year; just about all of the seats are taken, but I'm sure this good result will help him moving forward. The other major news was that Honda will now power the Toro Rosso Red Bull team and Renault will be powering McLaren in 2018. Renault is worried about helping a team that will likely be better than the works team, but still understand how this relationship will help their overall brand. With the checkered flag dropped, the current Drivers Championship standings are as follows: Hamilton, Vettel (-28), Bottas (-51), Ricciardo (-101), Raikkonen (-125). Verstappen and Perez are now tied for 6th. Malaysia should be another exciting race; we'll see how Ferrari responds.
