Fernando Alonso claimed a surprise win for Renault at the first night race in Formula One's history at Singapore as a disastrous Ferrari pit-stop boosted Lewis Hamilton's world championship dreams.
The Spaniard won the 20th race of his career and his first for more than a year as he was fortunate to be one of the few cars that had made an early fuel stop before teammate Nelson Piquet's crash on lap 14 brought out the safety car.
But the major talking point was the dramatic pitlane incident that wrecked Felipe Massa's hopes of taking the championship lead.
The Brazilian had led from pole position and had built up a four-second lead before the safety car bunched the pack up. But when he stopped for fuel and new tyres, critically, Ferrari's semi-automatic pit system gave him a green light to leave while fuel was still going into the car.
The Ferrari ripped the fuel hose out from the rig as it sped away, knocking one mechanic over as it was pulled away. Massa stopped at the end of the pitlane, where mechanics raced down to join him and forcibly pulled the hose from the car.
But his race was ruined as he fell to the back of the pack, and to add salt to the wound he was later given a pitlane drive through penalty for leaving the pits and impeding the Force India car of Adrian Sutil.
He eventually finished 13th, with title rival Lewis Hamilton taking advantage as he finished third to stretch his lead to seven points with three races to go.
But it was Alonso's day as he recorded Renault's first win since the Japanese Grand Prix in 2006, finishing 2.9secs ahead of the Williams of Nico Rosberg who achieved his highest finish in the sport.
"I am extremely happy," Alonso said.
"I cannot believe it right now, I need a couple of days to realise we won a race this year."
Alonso who had suffered mechanical problems in qualifying to leave him only 15th on the grid, admitted to luck with the timing of the safety car, but felt that was balanced out by his misfortune on Saturday.
He added: "Unlucky yesterday and maybe lucky today. I was unlucky in qualifying, we started from the back and the first safety car helped me a lot and I was able to win the race."
Up until lap 15 the race had looked as if it was going to be Ferrari's day. Massa had built up a four-second lead over Hamilton, while, after a tardy start, Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen had consistently set fastest laps as he closed the gap on the lead duo.But the safety car changed things massively.
Alonso and the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and David Coulthard had critically pitted before the pitlane was closed under the safety car regulations.
Rosberg and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica both came in for stops before the pitlane was opened again, and both got 10-second penalties.
When the race restarted Rosberg set a cracking pace as he and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli pulled away. The Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella was holding up the pack in third, with the Italian having not stopped.
But as cars began to pit again Alonso moved to the front, with his only competition being from Rosberg.
Hamilton had been eighth when the racing had restarted and he spent 20 laps stuck behind Coulthard.
Understandably given that Massa was out of the points, the Briton seemed reluctant to risk a collision by overtaking and he seemed content to sit in the Red Bull's slipstream.
But he got past the veteran on lap 42 and went on to claim the final spot on the podium.
There was late drama as Adrian Sutil's Force India hit the barriers eleven laps from the end as he crashed avoiding Massa, who was recovering from his own spin.
The field was bunched back up again, but Alonso showed great composure as he charged away at the restart, pulling out three seconds on Rosberg in the first lap.
The world champion Kimi Raikkonen's title defence all but ended as he made a mistake and hit the wall with four laps remaining when running fifth, leaving the Finn now 27 points behind Hamilton.
Timo Glock's Toyota was a fine fourth, with Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso finishing fifth, ahead of the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.
Coulthard was a battling seventh, ahead of the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima.
@Email:gcaygill@thenational.ae
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
Results:
5pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1.400m | Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Saab, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Majd Al Gharbia, Saif Al Balushi, Ridha ben Attia
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship (PA) Listed Dh 180,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Money To Burn, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh 70,000 2,200m | Winner: AF Kafu, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 2,400m | Winner: Brass Ring, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
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Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
