The 2016 Singapore Grand Prix is in the books and whaddya know! A Mercedes won it! What a complete and utter surprise! Nico Rosberg did the honors for this week’s Mercedes win with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton coming in third and sandwiched in between them was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Rosberg gathers top points for his relatively easy victory where he coasted home on worn tires just in front of a hard-charging Ricciardo [though the race really wasn’t that close] and AutoSportsNation awards second-place points to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who began the race in the 22nd and final starting position on the grid and wound up fifth [without a multitude of crashes to help him advance, might we add…]. Vettel’s Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, grabs the third and final point for his close fourth place finish behind the under-achieving Hamilton.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award once again goes to Dutch teenager Max Verstappen of Red Bull who caused a race-start crash with his poor start that forced Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to both try to go around him at approximately the same time – and ultimately resulted in Hulkenberg crashing and being put out of the race on the first lap.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award goes to Hamilton, who under-performed in the race then whined to his pit “Come on, guys! I needed a strategy that could get me past!” when he felt they made the wrong tire choice on an early pit stop.
The Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award goes to Singapore for allowing both a monitor lizard and a race official on the track on separate occasions when live racing was underway – and then for failing to join the 21st century after they temporarily jailed a Ferrari executive for tossing a cigarette butt on the ground.
The 2016 ASN Formula 1 Driver Standings [after Singapore Grand Prix]
1] Nico Rosberg – 28 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – 19 points
3] Sebastian Vettel – 14 points
4] Kimi Raikkonen – six points
5] Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen – four points
7] Fernando Alonso/Sergio Perez – three points
9] Jenson Button/Carlos Sainz, Jr. – two points
11] Valtteri Bottas/Romain Grosjean/Nico Hulkenberg/Daniil Kvyat/Stoffel Vandoorne – one point
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after Singapore Grand Prix]
1] Rosberg – three points
2] Hamilton/Kvyat/Verstappen – two points
5] Alonso/Bottas/Hulkenberg/Jolyon Palmer/Raikkonen/Wehrlein – one point
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award [after Singapore Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton/Raikkonen – three points
3] Ricciardo/Vettel – two points
5] Alonso/Button/Kvyat/Rosberg/Wehrlein – one point
The Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award [after Singapore Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – four points
2] Bernie Ecclestone – three points
3] Brazilian kidnappers/F1 stewards/Force India pit [Perez]/Mercedes/Red Bull pit [Ricciardo]/Renault pit [Palmer]/Singapore/Verstappen – one point