Lewis Hamilton raced to a scintillating victory at the Singapore Grand Prix leading the championship battle ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. The latter missed pole position by just 0.007 seconds and it was well anticipated that the race will witness an intense battle between the two Mercedes drivers.
Nico’s woes started before the race when an electrical issue required his steering wheel to be changed. Nico had to start the race from the pitlane where he couldn’t pull away from the grid for the formation lap unaided. This gave Hamilton the opportunity to sprint to pole and lead the race while being hounded by RedBull racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Alonso briefly moved up second but outbraked moving on the run-off area to control his machine in process giving Vettel the second spot. Meanwhile Rosberg faced issues with his DRS, energy recovery system and gearbox eventually retiring after lap 13.
With Rosberg out of the race Hamilton had a clear path ahead of him until the deployment of the safety car joepardised his position. Team ordered him to continue racing though he was on soft compounds. Hamilton started hammering fastest laps till he built a lead of nine seconds over Vettel so as to get ample window for a pitstop.
As Vettel claimed the lead, Hamilton fended Ricciardo to take lead again as the fresh set of tyres helped him gain a margin of 13.5 seconds.
Alonso jumped Vettel at the second round of stops conceding his position behind the safety car. He patiently waited for the Redbull’s tyres to degrade, however the Austrian bulls put up a fight to finish on the podium.
Felipee Massa repassed Kimi Raikkonen to end at a lonely fifth while Jean Eric Vergne finished his season’s best by coming in at a seventh inspite of being penalized for five seconds twice for exceeding track limits.
Results
|
Pos |
Driver |
Car |
Gap |
|
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
2h00m04.795s |
|
2 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull/Renault |
13.534s |
|
3 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull/Renault |
14.273s |
|
4 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
15.389s |
|
5 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams/Mercedes |
42.161s |
|
6 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
56.801s |
|
7 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India/Mercedes |
59.038s |
|
8 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
1m00.641s |
|
9 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India/Mercedes |
1m01.661s |
|
10 |
Kevin Magnussen |
McLaren/Mercedes |
1m02.230s |
|
11 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Williams/Mercedes |
1m05.065s |
|
12 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Lotus/Renault |
1m06.915s |
|
13 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus/Renault |
1m08.029s |
|
14 |
Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso/Renault |
1m12.008s |
|
15 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Caterham/Renault |
1m34.188s |
|
16 |
Jules Bianchi |
Marussia/Ferrari |
1m34.543s |
|
17 |
Max Chilton |
Marussia/Ferrari |
1 Lap |
|
- |
Jenson Button |
McLaren/Mercedes
Electrical
-
Adrian Sutil
Sauber/Ferrari
Water leak
-
Esteban Gutierrez
Sauber/Ferrari
Electrical
-
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
Steering wheel
-
Kamui Kobayashi
Caterham/Renault
Not started
Drivers' championship
|
Pos |
Driver |
Points |
|
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
241 |
|
2 |
Nico Rosberg |
238 |
|
3 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
181 |
|
4 |
Fernando Alonso |
133 |
|
5 |
Sebastian Vettel |
124 |
|
6 |
Valtteri Bottas |
122 |
|
7 |
Jenson Button |
72 |
|
8 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
72 |
|
9 |
Felipe Massa |
65 |
|
10 |
Sergio Perez |
45 |
|
11 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
45 |
|
12 |
Kevin Magnussen |
39 |
|
13 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
19 |
|
14 |
Romain Grosjean |
8 |
|
15 |
Daniil Kvyat |
8 |
|
16 |
Jules Bianchi |
2 |
|
17 |
Adrian Sutil |
0 |
|
18 |
Marcus Ericsson |
0
19
Pastor Maldonado
0
20
Esteban Gutierrez
0
21
Max Chilton
0
22
Kamui Kobayashi
0
Source : CarDekho
