The Track 
After the history of Spa and Monza, F1 moves into uncharted territory for it's second inaugural event of the season. Once again, like in Valencia, the new track is a street circuit, marking a move away from F1's preferred recent territory of purpose-built racing tracks, but some things don't change, and Hermann Tilke had a big say in the design and layout of the track. All in all, the feel of Singapore is likely to be closer to Monaco than the Valencia track ever threatened to be, meaning we'll get even less overtaking here than we saw in Valencia. If such a thing is possible.
The layout has a Champ Car-ish look to it, with a number of sharply turning corners and tight twists for the drivers to negotiate around the 23-turn race track. Notably, part of the course runs underneath a section of grandstand, which should prove more than a little disconcerting for all involved. The other main point of interest, of course, is that the whole event will take place at night (well, sort of late-evening, but it'll be dark), making it F1's first ever bona-fide night race. How much this will end up coming across is debatable though, seeing as safety concerns have meant that the whole track will be bathed in the light from a thousand(ish) floodlights, making the overall effect probably quite similar to watching a football game under floodlights (i.e. on telly, it sort of just looks like daylight). Still, it should be a laugh.
And here's an "interesting" fact to round this preamble off, this weekends race will be the 800th World Championship Grand Prix. So there you are.
Talking Points
Aside from the obvious "wow" factor of the night racing aspect to the weekend, the Singapore event offers the potential to really shake things up in the drivers championship. With Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa separated by just a single point (McLaren appeal pending), the innate prospect of a point-ruining crash around the twisty confines of the Singapore circuit could have big repercussions in the title scrap. This is probably not lost on the two outsiders for the crown, as Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen will both see a win here, coupled with problems for the front two, as being their route back into the championship fight.
The question, though, is whether Kimi would be allowed to drive with his own interests at heart this weekend. In the post-Schumacher years, Ferrari have clung to the belief that there will be no team orders in their plans, but with Massa in a far better position than Raikkonen, who has a 21-point deficit to improbably reel in, that belief may well be tested to it's limits this weekend. All this is assuming Raikkonen is even in a position to force the team to make a decision, seeing as he hasn't done too much in the field of "being in front of Massa" for pretty much the entire middle portion of the season.
The challenge of Robert Kubica, meanwhile, will likely have to be a triumph of reliability over outright speed. With the BMW team still lagging behind the front two on pace, Kubica's role will be similar to that of Heinz-Harald Frentzen during the similarly-tight 1999 title scrap, i.e. the plucky underdog who eventually slips back into obscurity when his rivals stop messing around and start trying.
Behind the main contenders, the fight for "best of the rest" is reaching it's conclusion, with Renault's recent renaissance pushing them up to level pegging with Toyota in fourth place in the constructors championship. They must now be the favourites for the midfield crown, given how Toyota seem to have fallen back of late, while the likes of Red Bull and Williams have stagnated horribly, and now Red Bull in particular have a fight of their own to reclaim the less prestigious 6th spot back from their sister squad, the nouveaux-fast Toro Rosso squad.
Modern Classic
Don't be silly. Though there was a "Singapore Grand Prix" held from 1967 to 1973 at the Thomson Road Circuit, albeit a Formula Libre event (which roughly translates as "if you turn up with a car, you can race"). The most recent event in 1973 was won by some bloke* called Vern Schuppan, who was Australian. A sign, surely, that this is Mark Webber's race. Maybe.
* - Having checked his Wiki page, I can see he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, and nearly won the Indy 500 once, so he probably deserves more of a well-researched introduction than "some bloke". But this is Patty, and we're useless, so you'll have to deal with it, Schuppan fans.
One Year Ago
Don't be silly.
Facts and Guesses
Number of Laps : 61
Lap Record : n/a
2007 Pole : n/a
2007 Winner : n/a
Free Practice 1 & 2 : 19:00 & 21.30 (Local Time) / 12.00 & 14.30 (BST) - Friday 26th September
Free Practice 3 : 19:00 (Local Time) / 12.00 (BST) - Saturday 27th September
Qualifying Start : 22.00 (Local Time) / 15.00 (BST) - Saturday 27th September
Race Start : 20.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST) - Sunday 28th September
On Patronise
What with this being our second brand-spanking new racetrack of the year, Patronise will be going to full nine yards for all three of it's loyal readers. Friday's pair of moonlit practice sessions will be covered in full, along with qualifying and the race, with the usual badly-edited mix of reviews, opinion and statistics thrown in as well. It'll be great, we're sure of it. Or just dark, one of the two.
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