Singapore Grand Prix: Rosberg wins a thriller to lead title race again

Nico Rosberg triumphed in his 200th Formula 1 race, the Singapore Grand Prix, after a thrilling end to the race which saw Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo scythe the Mercedes driver's 20 second lead to less than half a second as the pair crossed the finish line.

The victory sees Rosberg go top of the 2016 Formula 1 world championship points table once again, with an eight points lead. He previously led the standings until the British Grand Prix in July.

For most of the night, on the streets of Marina Bay, Rosberg had matters well in control despite some issues with his brakes which required constant management by the German.

But late on in the race Red Bull gambled bravely by switching Ricciardo - who was around five seconds adrift of the leader at that point - to supersofts. Rosberg's crew held firm on older soft tyres - the hitherto mundane race was suddenly alive.

What transpired thereafter was a relentless chase by Ricciardo, slashing the lead by two seconds per lap - the gamble almost paid dividends.

But at the same time, it must be said, that Rosberg kept his cool despite the obvious pressure and timed the finish perfectly.

Rosberg said afterwards, "It's been an awesome weekend in Singapore for me. Of course Daniel tried to pull one on me at the end but we managed to hold him off, I'm really, really happy."

"I couldn't come in at the same time as Daniel because I was in traffic. The whole car was on the edge, it always is in Singapore. It's all the more satisfying with a race like that," added the winner.

Ricciardo, who gets our 'Man of the Match' award said, "We have come close on numerous occasions but I am not disappointed. We gave it a shot, we got with half a second. It was close. As soon as did a pit stop we thought Nico would come in. I pushed hard on the tyres."

Behind the top two, was another intriguing battle - this one involving Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

On lap 46 (of 61) Raikkonen was ahead of Hamilton thanks to a great on track overtake, at which point Mercedes called their man in for a stop and change to Pirelli supersofts. The panic in the Ferrari pit was palpable.

They decided to call Mercedes' bluff and a lap later had Raikkonen pit for ultrasofts. They had fallen for a sucker punch which saw Hamilton reclaim third place where he stayed to the end of the race.

Raikkonen had to settle for fourth. Ferrari turned a near certain podium finish into fourth place - another blunder in a long catalogue of pit wall gaffes this season by the Reds.

Hamilton summed up, "Definitely not [a great weekend] but firstly big congratulations to Nico - he drove fantastically all weekend. It has been a tricky one for me but I'm just happy to get on the podium and get some points for the team."

Ferrari Sebastian Vettel turned last place on the grid into fifth place by the time the chequered flag waved to end the race, delivering a well calculated and slick performance as he picked off his rivals in his race through the field.

Sixth place went to Max Verstappen who botched his start and thereafter was playing catch up all day.

It was a positive evening for McLaren as Fernando Alonso made a bullet start and spent much of the race in fifth place, before settling for seventh ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso who was ninth despite being involved in a start melee which also involved his teammate Carlos Sainz, and resulted in Nico Hulkenberg crashing into the wall and prompting a safety car with less than 100 metres of the race being run.

The final point went to Kevin Magnussen in the Renault.

The race got off to a dramatic start as a hard charging Hulkenberg powered forward from eighth on the grid. Toro Rosso’s Sainz was also trying to get ahead, however, and as the Spaniard moved across the pair collided. Hulkenberg was pitched into the pit wall. With his Force India heavily damaged and with debris strewn across the track the Safety Car was swiftly deployed, neutralizing the race.

At the front, pole position man Rosberg had made a good start and held the lead ahead of Ricciardo who had also made a good getaway. Behind them, Hamilton held third place.

However, fourth-on-the-grid Verstappen in the second Red Bull made a poor start and dropped back to eight place under the safety car. The Dutch teenager would spend the rest of the race toiling on the fringes of the top 10, mostly with Toro Rosso’s Kvyat, before hauling himself up to P6 in the final third of the race.

When the safety car left the track Rosberg began to cement himself into the lead and by the time of the first round of stops, the German was seven seconds ahead of the Australian, Hamilton a further four seconds back.

At the rear of the field Ferrari’s Vettel, who had started in P22 due to a mechanical issue in qualifying, was already up to P10 as he passed slower cars and his soft tyres allowed him to stay out longer than rivals.

For the drivers at the front the second stint saw Mercedes losed some ground as Ricciardo, on a second set of supersofts reduced Rosberg’s advantage to less than three seconds.

Hamilton, struggling with brake issues, was chased down by Ferrari’s Raikkonen and on lap 34 the Finn muscled his way past to claim P3 just before they made their second stop

Vettel, meanwhile, was continuing to scythe through the order and by the time of his second stop he was sixth.

As the final third of the race approached Hamilton made a last roll of the dice, making a third tyre stop on lap 45 for ultrasoft tyres.

Fearing that Raikkonen might be overahauled in the final laps if he stayed out on old tyres, Ferrari reacted. The stop was not smooth, however, and the Finn emerged behind the champion, leading him to question the mechanics of the stop.

At the front Rosberg was looking secure, but on lap 47 Red Bull too gambled. With the gap back to Hamilton now more than safe thanks to his stop, Ricciardo pitted for supersoft tyres.

The Australian emerged some 27 seconds behind Rosberg and after briefly considering a reactive stop, Mercedes opted to leave Rosberg out on track.

Across 14 intensely exciting laps Ricciardo almost succeeded. Within five laps he had taken more than 10 seconds out of Rosberg’s advantage and the seconds continued to fall away.

He continued to press and by the final sector of the final lap he was inside DRS range as he and Rosberg hit traffic. The German held his nerve, however, and he kept Ricciardo at bay to cross the line just 0.488s ahead of the Red Bull.

With Hamilton third ahead of Raikkonen, Vettel’s superb driver from P22 led to a deserved fifth place. Verstappen passed McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in the final third to take sixth place and behind the Spaniard Sergio Perez was eighth for Force India. The final points positions were taken by Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.