A Force India lap of Singapore

Corner one is actually a complex together with two and three so it’s very important to get it right. Don’t go too far onto the kerbs on the exit as you get some understeer and can’t go back on the power. The complex carries into turn three so you need to be nice and controlled through the corner and have a good line. It’s a classic normal bend but it’s easy to lock up there with quite high kerbs on the inside. Then into turn five, where there is a lot of space for entry but then it goes a little bit tight and it’s difficult to see the apex.

Then we go into a tunnel section, which is quite nice, but there were lots of bumps last year. Braking for turn seven is one of the highest braking areas, down to second gear. It’s one of the few parts you can try and overtake before going left and right into turn eight and one of the slowest corners of the circuit.

Then there’s another complex out of eight where you accelerate then head straight to the right for a left hand corner, getting a good exit from nine onto the next straight, which finishes with a tricky chicane. The kerbs were very high there last year so it was easy to take too much and launch the car and have no control. We saw a few accidents there as it was very easy to make mistakes and go off in the end.

Turn 12 is just acceleration out over the bridge and last year there weren’t any bumps. Turn 13 is a very slow corner where you have to brake while turning. It’s important not to brake too late and concentrate on the exit for good straight line speed into turn 14. You are braking from sixth gear into this turn, so going at a reasonable speed, and it can be tricky on the exit as the traction is a little bit worse and it can start to oversteer quite a lot.

Then we go into a flat left-hander in turn 15 where you have to brake for turn 16, a fast chicane. As chicanes go, it’s quite nice as you take the kerbs a little bit to have a really good exit into turn 17. Turns 18 through to 21 are very similar, all looking the same with the same rhythm.

The last corner is one of the only high speed sections, fourth or maybe fifth gear with a very early apex that takes you all the way to the start-finish straight. The only difficulty is not to be too early on the power as you can run too far over the kerbs on the outside and then it carries you out on the green and you lose time again.