Low Flyer Won the Race

Low Flyer Fernando Alonso, the 27-year-old Spaniard, sneaked from behind to claimed his first victory of 2008 FI Singtel Singapore Grand Prix in his Renault Car, with the help of his team mate Nelson Piquet Jr. The race which cars go around 61 times on the Singapore Public Road Circuit, thrilled a sell-out crowd of 100,000 at the Marina Bay street circuit for about 2 hours. Alonso came from a lowly 15th on the starting grid. German driver Nico Rosberg is second place for Team Williams-Toyota. Team McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton extend his World Championship lead to seven points after finishing in third place. Team McLaren-Mercedes boss Martin Whitmarsh said "But we've seen Monaco evolve over many years and I can see the Singapore Grand Prix becoming our Monaco of the East".

On the other side of the fence: The race disrupted traffic and costed taxpayers millions of dollars but Singapore hopes the blitz will give businesses a much-needed boost and help the city state promote itself as a financial hub in Asia. The Singapore government is reportedly shouldering around 60% of the USD 100 million annual cost for hosting the event for the next five years. And in the days leading up it there were reports of hotels slashing rates amid sluggish demand, and of unused tickets changing hands for less than their face value. And, to top it off, the threat of global recession may well be enough to keep tourists and residents from parting with too much cash after the noise and loud noise of the cars die down.

Updated On: 09.09.21