Morning After: The crash that decided the championship

I wrote on Thursday that despite its relatively passing-unfriendly layout, Marina Bay Circuit tends to deliver the goods. Well, that continued to ring true on Sunday.

Having granted Lewis Hamilton a free 25-point boost, what happened at the first corner between Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen will probably go down as “the crash that decided the championship."

In trying to simultaneously squeeze Verstappen, both Ferrari drivers were responsible for their own destruction – Kimi for the initial contact, Seb for everything afterwards – and while mathematically it might not be over, together they’ve essentially submarined Ferrari’s 2017 title chances.

Truly we could not have had a more different three days in Singapore. Everything about Friday suggested the Red Bulls had the advantage. Everything about Saturday set up Sebastian Vettel to retake the initiative, and everything about Sunday undid that work.

Crashes aside, the race was shockingly routine for Mercedes. Daniel Ricciardo’s gearbox issues meant Hamilton was never really under threat – in all respects, what was set to be the hardest race of the Silver Arrows’ season turned into one of their easiest.

Unfortunately, all this means much of the air has now been taken out of the 2017 championship. Assuming Vettel takes all firsts to Hamilton’s seconds, the earliest the German could tie things up is in Austin, and with only three races after that, he’d really doesn’t have much leeway to work with. If you’re still betting on Vettel, really you’re betting on another Malaysia 2016-implosion for Hamilton.