Vettel wins Grand Prix of Singapore

Sebastian Vettel is the winner of Singapore Grand Prix. Ferrari driver was dominant from start to finish of the night race at Marina Bay Circuit, while championship leader Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire.

This was quite a crazy race with two safety cars, man on the track, a couple of contacts, clashes and retirements, but Vettel’s lead was never in doubt as he controlled the situation perfectly and completely deserved third victory in 2015, giving some spice in battle for the championship title six rounds before the end.

Standings at the top remained the same after the start of the race, but at the back of the grid, there was some confusion after Max Verstappen failed to start, so he was lap down as he had to start from the pits.

Almost nothing had happened during 13 laps or so, but then we saw the first accident between Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg. Brazilian was exiting the pits, while German didn’t saw him and collision was almost inevitable. Massa continued the race, while Force India driver was forced to retire as he finished in the barriers, with smoke coming out of his car.

Safety car was deployed and that is already a tradition in Singapore as safety was deployed in all eight night races. After the race was restarted, gaps were tightened so Vettel, Ricciardo and Raikkonen were within a second, while both Mercedes drivers were five seconds behind, so we could expect more fight.

But, Hamilton had some technical issues and he soon dropped 10 positions, considering to retire at halfway point of the race. Vettel confidently drove and had a 4.3s advantage on top, followed by Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Rosberg who was too far from the battle for podium.

But, safety car was deployed again because one of the spectators was walking on track. In lap 41 the race was restarted with some interesting battles for places in points zone between Maldonado, Button and Verstappen, but McLaren driver was unlucky as he lost front wing after contact with Maldonado.

Ricciardo pushed hard in the last few laps, but he couldn’t do anything. Vettel won 1.4s ahead of Australian in Red Bull, while Raikkonen was third with a gap of 17.1s. Rosberg was fourth, while Valtteri Bottas finished fifth.

Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Felipe Nasr scored remaining points.