eople paid for tickets but had better things to do on this nigh

Focus on... History repeating itselfF1 needs a touch of deja vu this weekend. Last year, for a crazy weekend, logic was flipped on its head and Mercedes looked absolutely ordinary for reasons the world champions have never properly explained. Though Toto Wolff thinks the team has solved those issue, the team has also been careful to play down expectations. Nico Rosberg even went as far as to say Singapore should be considered a Red Bull track?this weekend.And maybe he had a point. For Red Bull, this race poses a perfect opportunity to capitalise. There has been a Red Bull driver on the podium every year since 2010, with Sebastian Vettel winning on three of those occasions (2011, 2012, 2013). Though Red Bulls prowess on the aerodynamic side is legendary there are other reasons the team excels here year on year. The teams ability to find the sweet spot on set-up is a large part of its success over the years. Good traction and stable braking are essential and, while Mercedes struggled to get the most out of the softest compound last year, Red Bull also seems to be better at pushing the tyres on the quicker end of Pirellis scale.During Red Bulls horrible 2015 campaign, one of the few glimmers of light was its strong performance in Singapore. Ricciardo narrowly missed out on pole and may well have taken the fight to Vettel out in front were it not for a fan running on the track at mid-distance, one which brought out the Safety Car and neutralised the race in Vettels favour. This year Red Bull has been notably stronger and has moved past Ferrari in the championship, suggesting it will be even stronger this time around.Monaco is a good case in point: Red Bull was a genuine challenger for Mercedes and Ricciardo claimed his maiden pole position. Victory would have been his, too, were it not for a botched Red Bull pit stop. Monaco has obvious parallels to Singapore and, unlike the calendars other street circuit, Baku, does not lean heavily on outright engine power. Singapore is perhaps the middle ground between Monaco and Baku, requiring a good compromise between good downforce and a good drag configuration -- in other words, being good in corners without compromising too much on top-line speed. It is a compromise Red Bull has excelled at finding at Marina Bay in the last six years.?Another part of this weekends narrative will be Ferrari, the team that won in 2015 in dominant circumstances, with Vettel rolling back the years for his third win of the campaign. This year promised so much for the Maranello outfit but it is still searching for its first win of 2016 -- Singapore might be its most realistic chance of ending that wait before the end of the season.However, unlike Red Bull, Ferrari appears to have taken a step backwards on the chassis side, with president Sergio Marchionne recently admitting the team had failed on the development of its 2016 car. That is supported by the fact it slipped behind Red Bull in the constructors championship before the summer break despite Ferraris engine providing a bigger power output than Renaults.In need of a winThis is Ferraris best chance to put something in the win column this season, and realistically could be its last. It was strong last year but will need to be wary of Mercedes, with the team ominously confident it has solved last years problems, and a Red Bull team which has traditionally excelled at Singapore.In need of pointsThis section hasnt changed much in recent races: Jolyon Palmer and Esteban Gutierrez are still yet to be confirmed to a seat next year and both have zeros next to their names. Points around the challenging Marina Bay street circuit would be a timely boost.BettingThe bookies are clearly not paying too much attention to last year, with Lewis Hamilton still favourite for victory at 7/2. However, for the first time this season, another driver has better odds than the second Mercedes driver, with Daniel Ricciardo backed at 11/4. Sebastian Vettel is 9/1 for a fifth win at Marina Bay. If you share Fernando Alonsos optimism about McLaren, there are odds of 10/11 for the Spaniard or teammate Jenson Button to make the top six.ESPN predictionA lot depends on whether Mercedes has solved last years problems, but were going out on a limb here and saying both are kept off the podium again this weekend. It might be out of hope more than genuine expectation, but we are calling a Daniel Ricciardo-Sebastian Vettel showdown like last year - only this time with the Australian coming out on top to avenge the Monaco victory he lost earlier this year.WeatherF1 weather service Ubimet warns of the presence of the SouthWest monsoon when assessing the weather for this weekend, though it looks unlikely this weather will hit in the evenings, when the majority of sessions take place. Ubimet also predicts the chances for dry weather conditions are rather high, though thundery showers early on Friday and Saturday could make the opening session of either day interesting from a strategy point of view.A lap with....Esteban GutierrezYou arrive into turns one, two and three and its basically a sequence of corners. Its a medium-speed corner entering into turn one, and at turn two its important to prepare the line for turn three. Turn three is more of a hairpin, so the exit is very important. You arrive down into turn five which then sends you onto a long straight which is flat out.You arrive into high braking which is around turn seven, fairly straight, 90-degree corner. You have the track closing in as the walls get very close. Its important to keep the car in good traction, not to overheat the rear tires a lot. Then you have three corners before the hairpin where it becomes pretty challenging. You cannot lose the line. Everything is about getting the right sequence. Exit of the hairpin you have a long straight and you go downhill into another 90-degree corner. Its pretty challenging because by this point the tires are getting a bit overheated.All the rest becomes sector three. You arrive into the first chicane and take all the curbs very aggressively, then you go left into the tunnel and into a very short chicane. On the last chicane, you use all the track on the outside, close to the wall. The last corner is a pretty fast corner. Its important to make it right and then get going into a straight line for start/finish line.TyresAvailable compounds: Soft, super-soft, ultra-softPaul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: Singapore is probably the most spectacular circuit that we visit all season, and this year we hope to make it even more special with the arrival of our rapid ultrasoft compound, in order to maximise the speed and grip available at the Marina Bay track. This is one of the most unpredictable races of the year - its the only track with a 100% safety car record - so all the complex variables inevitably throw up opportunities for teams to do something creative with strategy. In terms of competition, it looks set to be one of the closest races we will see all year, where tyre management will make a big difference.Tyre facts:? Singapore has the highest number of corners of any circuit all year (23) but is the second-slowest lap after Monaco: placing demands on tyres in terms of cornering, braking and traction.? The surface is typically bumpy, also with street furniture such as painted lines and manholes.? Being run at night, track temperatures dont evolve in the usual way seen at a daytime race.? Ambient temperatures still remain high though, meaning drivers have to manage degradation.? A long race and high safety car probability open up many different tyre strategy opportunities.?Low downforce means all the mechanical grip comes from tyres: the left-rear works hardest.? Pit stop time is long due to a lower speed limit and long pit lane: a key strategic consideration. Air Max 720 Pas Cher . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Air Force 1 Pas Cher . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? Why was this overturned? James Veaudry Pembroke, ON -- Hey Kerry, Youll get a lot of these, but why was the Montreal goal against Nashville Saturday night overturned? Eller puts the puck on net and the on ice ruling from the ref behind the net is a Montreal goal. http://www.chaussurepascherchine.fr/grossiste-air-max-95/nike-95-homme-solde.html . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Air Max 97 Pas Cher Chine . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Air Max 270 Homme Soldes . Los Angeles star goalie survived those perilous gymnastics with no problem, and he eventually backstopped the Kings to a skid-snapping win. Quick stopped 27 shots in his return from a 24-game injury absence, Jeff Carter scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 to play, and the Kings snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. TORONTO -- Team Canada fought off its poorest performance of the World Cup of Hockey and found a way to edge Europe 3-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-three final Tuesday night.A masterpiece this was not.Whether it was because the Air Canada Centre was lifeless and the players got spooked, or perhaps the Canadians had trouble getting fired up to face a Europe team that had never existed before this tournament, the Olympic champions looked unmotivated at times, were sloppy with the puck, and lacked the kind of four-line cohesion we had seen since the start of the tournament.And yet perhaps it just goes to show the disparity in talent between these two teams: Europe played a strong game Tuesday night, while Canada played well below its potential -- and still the result went in favor of the favorites.Carey Price had something to do with that. The 2014-15 Hart and Vezina Trophy winner made a number of difficult saves to keep Europe at bay.Its a also a reminder of how daunting it is to beat this Canadian side, which has now gone 11-0 since the start of the 2014 Sochi Olympics (and won 15 consecutive games in best-on-best hockey dating back to the Vancouver Olympics in 2010). Even when a team is able to finally wrestle the puck away from Team Canada and generate chances, like Europe did plenty of times on Tuesday night, it finds the best goalie in the world waiting for them. Its almost not fair.Brad Marchand and Steven Stamkos scored in the opening frame for Canada, but Europes?Tomas Tatar?made things interesting with a second-period goal for Europe.Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock looked none too pleased as the second period played itself out, Canada easily playing its worst 20 minutes of the tournament.Bergerons third-period tally -- how great has that Sidney Crosby unit been? -- ended the suspense.The crowd certainly didnt help. There were empty seats throughout the rink eveen though officially it was a sellout, which means lots of people paid for tickets but had better things to do on this night.dddddddddddd Its worth noting the Toronto Blue Jays, trying to cement a wild-card spot in the final week of the baseball season, were opening a series with AL East rival Baltimore just down the street.The point was hammered home during a TV timeout when the giant scoreboard in the Air Canada Centre showed Mario Lemieuxs winning goal from the deciding game of the 1987 Canada Cup final, the crowd at Copps Coliseum that night in Hamilton absolutely delirious. It was electric.You got absolutely none of that on this night in the opening of this World Cup final. Perhaps that has to do with the opposition. Team Europe is a terrific story, but lets not kid ourselves, its hard for Canadian hockey fans to muster much animosity for a team that didnt exist before this tournament.Of course, had Europe prevailed on this night, that might have added all kinds of intrigue in this final. Maybe the Europeans can pull it off Thursday night in Game 2. But I suspect Team Canada, after a talking-to from Babcock, will be much better and energized to end the tournament.Three stars1.?Carey Price, G, Team Canada: Rarely during this Team Canada run that dates back to Sochi has the Montreal Canadiens star had to make the difference, but he certainly did on this night. Canada needed him. And he delivered with his usual poise and confidence.2.?Anze Kopitar, C, Team Europe: The Los Angeles Kings captain was all over the puck, having an impactful night that gave Canada fits.3.?Patrice Bergeron, RW, Team Canada: Had a beauty of an assist in setting up the opening goal and then scored the back-breaker midway through the third period to cement the win. ' ' '