This was the race where Red Bull was to return to the sharp end of the grid and be right back on the podium. Due to Nico Rosberg’s retirement and some superb driving from both of their drivers – Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, they managed to leave Singapore with not one, but two pieces of silverware.
It proved to be a very tough race for all of the drivers out there, and the two Red Bull drivers were no exceptions. We saw one of their drivers suffer a loss of power and another suffer a significant loss of downforce. Despite this, they managed to fend off Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, whose package looked seriously quick in the hands of both drivers, to bring a lot of optimism headed into Suzuka, Vettel’s favourite circuit.
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Grid: P4
Race: P2
Vettel was disappointed not to get pole position on Saturday, something which he has come close to but failed to achieve so far in 2014, he also was outqualified by Ricciardo for the first time in a while. However, he passed Ricciardo at the start and ran in second for much of the race until the Ferrari of Alonso was ahead after making a pit stop which differed from Vettel’s strategy. Vettel was back ahead after the safety car period but failed to keep with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. He suffered from rear tyre wear, not helped by a broken monkey seat early into the race. He finished in second, a brilliant result and his best of the year so far. Has Vettel’s season finally kick-started?
Sebs broken monkey seat. The team haven’t seen it as the cars in scrutineering. But it was failed by the first stop pic.twitter.com/TxjXmXSQT8
— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsF1) September 21, 2014
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Grid: P3
Race: P3
Ricciardo was passed illegally by Alonso at the start but oddly the stewards believed that Alonso did nothing wrong. He remained behind Alonso until the safety car when Alonso was forced to pit. For a lot of the race, Ricciardo was suffering from an intermittent loss of power in high gears, not a massive hindrance, but still very inconvenient. He finished an incredibly solid third, less than a second behind his team mate.
Red Bull shouldn’t be too bad at Suzuka, a circuit which has similar features to Silverstone. Red Bull showed a lot of pace at Silverstone and Suzuka is prime Vettel territory, having won there in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Vettel’s worst result at Suzuka is third, so should he keep up this form, he could well be on for another podium there.
Race day pic.twitter.com/WvLmTDdLPE
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) September 21, 2014
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