Sebastian Vettel has won the Singapore Grand Prix in emphatic style after dominating the entire weekend and bouncing back from a safety car period to win the race by over thirty seconds.
Having stormed into an early lead, Vettel was forced to regroup after a safety car period eradicated the gap he had created. However, the defending world champion lived up to his credentials by setting down a remarkable pace to win the race with ease. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen managed to take advantage of the safety car’s appearance to finish second and third respectively as Mercedes and Mark Webber struggled to recover their pre-safety car positions, missing out on the podium.
The start saw Nico Rosberg make a fantastic getaway, going side-by-side with Vettel heading into turn one and outbraking his compatriot to move into the lead. However, it lasted a matter of seconds as the Mercedes ran wide heading into turn two to hand the position back to Vettel, with Alonso tailing the pair having made a superb start from P7. Lewis Hamilton could not match the pace of his teammate early on, dropping to seventh and wrangling with Felipe Massa for position. Sergio Perez also enjoyed a good start, making up four places on the first lap including a fine pass on compatriot Esteban Gutierrez. However, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas both dropped back, with the latter falling behind Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde.
At the front, Vettel was told to look after his tires in anticipation of a safety car, given that there has been one at every single Singapore Grand Prix held. Teammate Mark Webber was hounded for P4 by Romain Grosjean as the front runners began to spread out. Having suffered from back pain during qualifying, Kimi Raikkonen required a valiant drive to fight his way back into the points, but he opted to stop early along with Gutierrez. The rest of the field chose to bide its time, coming in a few laps later with varying choices of tire. A few chose to run on the faster super-softs, with the majority on the longer-lasting mediums. Having jumped him at the start, Alonso remained ahead of Webber after the first round of stops, whilst Grosjean elected to buck the trend and took on a fresh set of super-softs in an attempt to pass the battle ahead. Vettel went deeper into the race than his rivals, re-emerging in the lead ahead of Rosberg and a long-running Paul di Resta who had battled brilliantly to work his way up to P3 before stopping on lap twenty.
Having been stuck behind di Resta, Alonso lost the chance to undercut Rosberg for P2 and soon found himself being caught by Webber and Grosjean behind. However, their charge was soon halted by a safety car after Daniel Ricciardo put his Toro Rosso into the wall at turn seventeen. Not only did this bunch the field, but it also sparked a flurry of pit stops as drivers looked to take on fresh rubber. This left Vettel leading from Rosberg, Webber and Hamilton, but Alonso in P5 had far fresher tires and looked to rectify his race following the stoppage.
Off the restart, Vettel quickly set about re-opening the gap to Nico Rosberg in P2, for once being told by his engineer to push as much as possible. He duly responded, lapping between one and two seconds per lap quicker than the rest of the field. A problem with Grosjean’s car forced the Frenchman to pit for a third time from sixth, dropping to last when he eventually came back out again, but he could only complete a further four laps before retiring from the race. van der Garde’s fine drive continued at the expense of Bottas once again, passing him for P16 not long after the safety car had come back in. At the front, Vettel’s charge continued as his lead swelled to over twenty seconds while Rosberg suffered from a lack of grip due to some rubber lodged in his front wing.
As his teammate steamed ahead in P1, Webber pitted for a second time on lap forty-one, taking on a fresh set of mediums that would see him through to the end of the race. With Rosberg pitting one lap later, Webber was able to undercut his rival perfectly, leapfrogging the Mercedes driver to give Red Bull a chance of a one-two finish. Hamilton could not do anything to intervene, with a slow stop seeing him fall behind Webber and his teammate. A poor stop from Ferrari allowed di Resta to get the jump on Massa, whilst it was plain sailing for Vettel in the pits, with the German driver taking on super-soft tires just in case of a late safety car.
This round of stops played into the hands of those who pitted under the safety car. Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Perez, Hulkenberg and Gutierrez all looked to go to the end of the race. The young Mexican found himself being hounded by Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton, with all three drivers finding a way through before being followed by di Resta and Massa to drop the Sauber out of the points. Button and Raikkonen became embroiled in a battle for the final podium position, with the Finn’s back problems subsiding in time for the race, and he pulled off a remarkable overtake around the outside of turn four to move onto the podium. The Webber-Rosberg-Hamilton train continued to power through the field, picking off Hulkenberg and then Perez. Their charge was nearly halted when Paul di Resta ended his race in the wall with five laps remaining, but Webber rallied to find a way past Button for fourth, subsequently setting his sights on Raikkonen. However, he was given the call to short-shift, ending all hopes of having two Red Bulls on the podium. He then lost out to Rosberg and Hamilton because of the issue late on, before eventually pulling over and retiring from the race.
At the front, Vettel refused to back off, setting a relentless pace even in the dying stages of the grand prix to take the checkered flag by over thirty seconds, having led every lap and set the fastest lap of the race. Alonso and Raikkonen completed the podium thanks to some good strategic work, but with Vettel clinching a third successive win and extending his championship lead to sixty points, the German driver looks to be en route to a fourth straight title.
