Singapore Grand Prix: Vettel's night to remember

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel turned a superb pole winning lap, which he delivered 24 hours earlier, into a commanding victory in an incident packed Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and with it celebrated on the top step of the podium for the third time this year and a fourth time at the Marina Bay Circuit.

From the moment the red lights went dark, Vettel took command setting a blistering early pace which saw him with a five seconds lead within a handful of laps.

Even a couple of safety car periods - first after the collision between Williams' Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India and a second one when a spectator bizarrely strolled on to the track - could do little to hamper the German on his way to one of his most famous victories.

Ferrari capitalised and stuck the knife into Mercedes' curious loss of form at the tricky street circuit venue, which saw Nico Rosberg finish fourth albeit 24 seconds down on the winner, while world championship leader Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire with a technical issue when in fourth and within sight of the leaders, but with nothing in his arsenal to attack.

Ferrari clearly found an edge in Singapore which Vettel made the most of and prompting memories of his ruthless dominance at Red Bull not long ago. He was simply unstoppable and did not make a single mistake all night.

Afterwards a delighted Vettel, who equaled Michael Schumacher's record of three wins in his first season at Ferrari, said, "It must be one of my best races. It was pretty intense. Lots of pressure form behind, Daniel had a very good race looking after his tyres. Second stint I was dictating the pace. From then, I was trying to control the gap. We had a really great weekend."

"The party on Sunday night... we will have some drinks, definitely. My drink bottle failed halfway through the race so I am quite thirsty. If we have more weekends like this, yes we can catch Mercedes. Massive attack. Maybe we can make the impossible possible - we will definitely go for it," added Vettel.

Behind him Daniel Ricciardo chased gamely all race long in his Red Bull to finish second, ahead of third placed Kimi Raikkonen whose sour face on the podium was probably attributed to the fact that he finished 17 seconds down on his teammate.

Big smiling Ricciardo said, "Seb experimented a bit today - at the start of the race he just went. If there was no safety car we could have been close for the undercut but the two safety cars came at pretty crucial times. It was really good to back up qualifying. We matched Seb in race pace and we have got to be pretty happy."

Poker face Raikkonen summed up his thoughts, "We hope this is a sign of the future. Saturday I struggled for whatever reason, I was surprised to finish third in qualifying and today was a struggle again and I had no chance to do anything about first or second."

[highlight ]Singapore Grand Prix Race Report[/highlight]

From the start Vettel made a good getaway to take the lead ahead of Ricciardo. Raikkonen too held his starting position to sit in third ahead of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, while Hamilton and Rosberg kept their starting positions of fifth and sixth position, ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

There was trouble for Max Verstappen though. The Toro Rosso driver, who was starting eighth, stalled on the grid and the rest of the field swarmed past him as the grand prix got underway. Verstappen was wheeled back to the pit lane where his car was restarted and he re-joined a lap down.

Vettel meanwhile was flying. By the end of lap two the Ferrari driver was a 4.4s ahead of Ricciardo and after four laps he’d stretched the advantage to 5.2 seconds.

After six laps, though the lap times began to stabilise, with Ricciardo’s race engineer Simon Rennie telling the Red Bull driver that “Vettel has calmed down a bit”. Ricciardo began to chip away at the gap and took a second out the German over the next handful of laps.

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was the first to shed his opening supersoft tyres – the Frenchman switching to soft tyres on lap 10. On the next lap he was followed to the pit lane by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. Sainz lost time in the stop though as he was held in his pit box as Ericsson and Maldonado made their way along the pit lane.

On lap 13, however, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed as Williams’ Felipe Massa and Force India Nico Hulkenberg made contact. Massa was re-joining after his pit stop and Hulkenberg gave the Brazilian nowhere to go as they went into the following corner.

They collided and Hulkenberg was pitched into the wall and out of the race. The Singapore Grand Prix’s 100% safety car record was maintained when the physical safety car was then briefly deployed as marshals cleared the debris from the crash.

Hulkenberg was later penalised with a three-place grid drop at next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix for causing the collision.

The period under the SC meant that all cars pitted, though some with more success than other. Jenson Button’s stop in front of the McLaren garage went horribly wrong as a problem with his front right wheel delayed him for some time and he rejoined in P16.

The order at the top under the SC saw Vettel leading from Ricciardo and Raikkonen, with the top three having taking more supersofts in their stops. Hamilton was fourth on soft tyres as was fifth-placed team-mate Rosberg.

Kvyat, also on supersofts, lost out under the VSC and had dropped to P6 ahead of Bottas, Force India’s Sergio Perez, Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, who has climbed to P9 from 16^th on the grid and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Verstappen, meanwhile, had the chance re-join the lead lap during the safety car period.

When the action resumed Ricciardo kept pace with Vettel and on lap 22 the Australian was 0.8s behind the lead, with Vettel appearing to hold back a bit. Raikkonen was another 0.9 ofassecond back but Hamilton was beginning to lose touch with the podium positions, slipping to over two seconds down on the leaders.

On lap 27 Hamilton began complaining of a loss of power and the Briton was swiftly passed by Rosberg and Kvyat.

The team told Hamilton that his throttle was failing to open completely but that there was no electrical problem. Hamilton responded that he could no feel a pedal issue and as the investigation went on Hamilton to P11 by lap 30.

It was then Felipe Massa’s turn to encounter problems as he radioed his team to say that his car had suddenly jumped into neutral. He made a detour through the pit lane without stopping and then was told to retire the car.

Hamilton’s frustrations finally came to an end on lap 33. The championship leader had been complaining that the issue was worsening and then informed his team that the brakes were becoming too cold to continue in comfort. The team told him to box and he too retired.

On lap 35 Kvyat made his second stop from P5 but there was a problem with the rear left wheel and he lost out again as his stop took 6.6 seconds. He dropped to seventh.

On lap 37 the Safety Car was deployed again, though this time it was because of a spectator invading the track.

It was the cue for all of the field to make another pit stop and when the order sorted itself out under the SC Vettel still led from Ricciardo and Raikkonen but Rosberg was now fourth ahead of Bottas with Kvyat sixth. Perez was now seventh in the sole remaining Force India, with Grosjean eighth ahead of team-mate Pastor Maldonado.

Button, in the sole remaining McLaren following an earlier retirement for Fernando Alonso, was in the final points position, though he too would soon exit the race with a gearbox issue.

When the action resumed, Vettel this time powered away, with the German rapidly building a two-second gap to Ricciardo. Further back Button tangled with Maldonado as they battled for P9 and the Briton clipped the back of the Lotus, losing his front wing in the prices. He pitted for a new wing and re-joined in P14.

Toro Rosso’s drivers, meanwhile, were on a march, with Verstappen passing Maldonado for P9 and with Sainz repeating the moved almost immeditaley afterwards. Verstappen then set the fastest lap of the race so far on lap 43 of the 61 scheduled.

The Dutch teenager then passed Grosjean for P8 on lap 47 with an excellent move into Turn 16. Sainz followed but his move was riskier and both drivers went over the kerbs on the exit, with Grosjean complaining that he had been forced wide and had “no place to go”. The move stood, however, and Sainz held ninth.

Verstappen’s next target was Perez in seventh but he could find no way past the Mexican. His race ended in somewhat controversial circumstances when his engineer told him to swap places with Sainz in the closing laps. Verstappen refused and held station to claim eighth ahead of his team-mate...

At the front the order also remained unchanged, with Vettel taking his 42^nd career win just 1.4s ahead of Ricciardo, with Raikkonen third. Rosberg closed the gap to title rival Hamilton by 10 points by claiming fourth with Bottas fifth ahead of Kvyat and Perez.

With the Toro Rosso pair eighth and ninth, the final points position when to Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.

[highlight ]Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay Circuit - Round 13, 2015 Formula 1 World Championship Result[/highlight]