McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari shine while Toyota fail to make mark in first practice session

By Lai Jun Wei

There has been much publicity about Toyota’s experience at night racing and its successful testing at the night circuit. But Toyota’s showing tonight at the inaugural 2008 Formula One Singapore Grand Prix was far from satisfactory.

Consisting of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, ranked 8th and 11th in the current standings, Toyota is 4th in the Constructor’s Championship. But Trulli, who moved over from Renault in 2004, was not the supposed star of Toyota in this race, but rather, Timo Glock.

The 26-year old who started with Jordan, had experience in night racing when he raced in the GP2 in the United States. He competed in a night race at Las Vegas in 2005 and finished eighth in the 400km race.

President of Toyota Motorsport and the Toyota F1 team John Howett said: "I think for us the biggest challenge will be the temperature. The surface temperature of the track will be very low and normally Formula 1 tyres work best in higher temperatures. Then of course at that time of year there's a high probability of rain. So we will face difficulty with temperature, made worse possibly by heavy rain. Night racing is a challenge but we're a team that has come from Le Mans so we should be able to handle that quite easily."

As other teams remained tight lipped about their preparation for the race, one would expect Toyota to steal the show but as results for the first practice session came in, it was not to be. McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari were again on top, whereas Timo Glock finished a disappointing 13th with his fastest lap at 1:47.706. Team mate Jarno Trulli fared even worse, finishing second last with a time of 1:49.064, just ahead of Red Bull-Renault’s Mark Webber.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton pipped Ferrari’s Felipe Massa to the top, clocking a fastest lap of 1:45.518. He was almost a tenth of a second faster than Massa who clocked a time of 1:45.598. Team mate, and 2007 Champion Kimi Räikkönen was third with 1:45.961. The other McLaren racer, Heikki Kovalainen completed the top four with a time of 1:46.463.

With the possibility of Singapore experiencing rain during race day, there have been concerns about safety. Then again, if Lewis Hamilton manages to grab pole position, he might just win the first night race here in Singapore. Hamilton has shown great performances on wet surfaces.

Last year, where he nearly took the title in his rookie campaign, he won in the rain in Japan, Monaco and the United Kingdom. He would have done so again at Italy last weekend, but he finished seventh, blaming tactical errors by the team.

Other racers such as those from Renault and AT&T Williams have adopted a different strategy for this race. Fernando Alonso will try not to adjust to the local time zone but remain on a European schedule to be as fit as possible for the race at night.

Nico Rosberg and team mate Kazuki Nakajima from AT&T are also two racers who have adopted this strategy. Apparently, this strategy is believed by some to be best for energy levels. Getting this right would be an important element for this race, both for drivers and members of the team.

With the Singapore Grand Prix being the first night race, all the racers are venturing into the unknown at 300km/h. Whoever is in pole position or in second place might most likely win this race.

The racers might choose to play it safe, choosing to fight it out in the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway or the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai instead. Race commentators have raised the possibility that Kimi Räikkönen might even help team mate Felipe Massa win this race, judging that his team mate is only separated from team rival Lewis Hamilton by one point. However, with much pride in the way, each driver might just want to win this race for themselves.

In the second practice session, the racers seem to be showing signs of fatigue, with timings seeming significantly slower than the first practice session. Force India’s Giancarlo Fischella retired, apparently with engine problems.

The racers have also been facing tyre problems. On a street circuit, the tyres overheat and wear out faster. Ferrari’s showing is getting better than McLaren, with Felipe Massa currently getting faster with every lap, putting up a stronger challenge to leader Lewis Hamilton.

Massa overtook Hamilton with about eight minutes of practice time to go but Hamilton quickly came back out of the pit to retake the fastest lap. Stay tune for more updates!

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