Sebastian Vettel eased to victory at the Singapore. He beat on competetion from Jenson Button, and the distraction of a safety car. He failed to win the Driver's World Championship, but now only needs 1 point to win back to back titles.
The start of the race began cleanly enough. Button managed to jump Webber for second, but his teammate Hamilton fell down to eighth behind the two Mercedes. Vettel lead Button, while Alonso took Webber for third. Then it was Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher and Hamilton. This still didn't give Vettel the Driver's Championship yet. By lap 4, the DRS was active, and the first driver to gain was Hamilton, as he took Schumacher for seventh. Lewis did not hang around, and on the next lap he had taken Rosberg to continue up the grid. Next on his radar was the battle for third between Alonso, Webber and Massa. At the very front Vettel was storming ahead, putting in more than one second a lap into Button. Meanwhile the Brit was ensuring that he was a far distance away from Alonso's Ferrari.
By lap 10, the closest action was for third. Webber managed to overtake Alonso after the bridge, and holding his position well, he put another Red Bull on the podium. Alonso went straight into the pits. He was soon followed by Hamilton and Massa who both pitted on lap 12. When they came back into the track, in the same position, Hamilton tried to pass Massa on the DRS straight. They were even on the first corner, but as the took the apex, Lewis clipped the back of the Ferrari. This broke the McLaren front wing, and gave Felipe a puncture. Both pitted, and pushed them down the grid. After the stewards looked at the incident, they gave Hamilton a drive-through penalty, putting him down to twentieth.
Elsewhere, Webber responded to Alonso pitstop, but as he exited the pitlane, Fernando retook his position. At the very front, Vettel and Button pitted, and rejoined in the lead. The best action was now in the packed midfield. With different stratergies, and different grip levels, all the drivers were moving up and down the grid. The main losers were the Saubers and Renaults as they just lacked grip. The Force India's split strategy seemed to be working for DiResta, as he spent a fair amount of time in third. By lap 18, he had a faster Alonso behind him. Paul had enough pace, until they entered the DRS zone, when Fernando eased into third. Next up for the Scot was Webber. But he gave way, pitted, and put on the super soft tyres.
The tyres on the Ferrari were not performing well, and Alonso had to switch to a three-stop strategy. When he pitted for a second time, he let Webber through into third. In the midfield, Hamilton was climbing his way up the field. He had good moves on Massa, Barrichello, & Kobayashi. By lap 27, he was in the top ten, chasing Schumacher. Michael, though, was stuck in a battle with Perez and Rosberg. These two were fighting infront, and slowing each other down. Michael caught up with Perez, and while trying to overtake the Mexican, he clipped the rear of the Sauber, braking his front wing, and sending him up into the air, and crashing him into the barriers. With debris everywhere, the safety car came out. A flurry of cars came in, including Webber, Vettel, Hamilton and the majority of the grid.
When the safety car left the track on lap 33, Vettel pulled away, putting in 5 seconds immediately into Button. Behind them, Webber put in a great overtake over Alonso, out-breaking him around the turn 10 chicane. After these, there was a very lengthy queue containing Sutil, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Alguersuari, and a flurry of other drivers. On lap 37, Lewis was the bravest, as he took he friend Sutil, on the corner after the DRS zone. On the next lap, he took Rosberg in the DRS zone. Next up for him was fellow Brit, DiResta. By the time they came round to the next DRS zone, Lewis eased around the outside of Paul. At this stage, Vettel lead Button, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, DiResta, Rosberg,
With Lewis' next target, Alonso, 13 seconds away, the closest action in the points was Webber slightly closing in on Button. Jenson, like leader Vettel, was trying to finish the race on the tyres they were currently using. To take second, Webber would have to do the same. This would have been hardest on the Red Bull's, who were harder on the tyres than Button. On lap 48, though, Webber pitted. This gave him good pace, but it stuck him behind Alonso and Hamilton to 5th. Webber spent no time in taking Lewis though. Button and Hamilton followed Mark into the pits. Button stayed ahead of Webber, but Lewis dropped down to ninth. Vettel also pitted with 11 laps left, and so did Alonso. The top four stayed the same, but behind them was DiResta, Rosberg, Sutil, Perez an Hamilton. It wasn't long though until Lewis took Perez's 8th place. He then took 7th off Sutil. He also eased past Rosberg, with DiResta not far away next for the McLaren driver.
With 5 laps left, Button was one of the fastest on the track as he tried to put pressure on Vettel. McLaren that they could copy the Canadian GP, and force Vettel into a mistake. Both had to pass a fair bit of traffic, and with two laps to, the gap was 5.6 seconds, which killed the attack. On the last lap, Vettel, surrounded by traffic, crossed the line just ahead of Button. Webber joined them on the podium, as he finished ahead of Alonso and Hamilton.
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
3 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
4 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
5 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
6 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 22
7 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
8 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
9 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
10 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 26
11 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 25
12 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 14
13 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
14 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 16
15 - Bruno Senna - Renault - 29
16 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 18
17 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 12
18 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 30
19 - Daniel Ricciardo - HRT - 39
20 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 23
21 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 15
R - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 17
R - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 11
R - Timo Glock - Virgin - 20
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