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Hamilton was lucky to grab pole in qualifying, when Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello crashed in the third qualifying session with seconds to go, bringing out the red flag. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams-Toyota’s Nico Rosberg had every right to be disappointed, as they were running well and looked set to wrest pole from Hamilton before the red flags were shown. The young Germans therefore had to settle for second and third on the grid. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber joined Rosberg on the second row, qualifying in fourth. Championship Leader Jenson Button had a disappointing time in qualifying, not making it out of the second session and only making it in 12th. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was the other major casualty in Q2, coming in 13th.
The race started out relatively smoothly, with Hamilton making good use of his pole position to pull ahead. The only major talking point was Rosberg managing to pull a move on Vettel and grabbing second spot. Later in the lap, Mark Webber tried a move on Renault’s Fernando Alonso at Turn 9 heading down St Andrew’s Road after he lost position, but ran wide at the corner and had to give up his position again, and also to Toyota’s Timo Glock after the German had passed Alonso himself.
Renault’s other driver Romain Grosjean was the first casualty of the race, pulling into the pits after only three laps with a brake problem that afflicted him all weekend. It was another blow for the beleaguered Renault team after a rough week where they were punished for conspiracy to fix the Singapore Grand Prix a year ago, and saw team principal Flavio Briatore and team director Pat Symonds banned from the sport. Grosjean dubbed it his "worst weekend ever."
The race continued as per normal, with Hamilton leading from Rosberg and Vettel. The only sort of action before the first pits tops was Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari in 14th place holding up a whole host of cars, including the Ferraris and Force Indias, who were desperate to overtake the slower Spaniard on the narrow street circuit. This was not helped by the yellow flag being waved due to a part of Timo Glock’s front wing being left on the track, making overtaking impossible.
Vettel was the first to pit on lap 17, followed by Rosberg on lap 18. But Rosberg made a hash of his exit and cut across the white line when rejoining, incurring a drive-through penalty which would end up ruining his race.
On lap 21, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, in a desperate attempt to overtake Alguersuari on the turn 8 corner out of Nicoll Highway, spun his car, and collected BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld when trying to recover, resulting in a spectacular accident. Sutil managed to recover and carry on, but eventually retired anyway three laps later, while the unfortunate Heidfeld saw his incredible run of 41 races without retirement, stretching back to 2007, come to an end.
The accident saw the safety car being deployed, and as most of the front-runners had already pitted before the crash, this did not have much effect on the race leadership. The only exception was Jenson Button, who had fuelled longer and now sat in eighth position.
Rosberg was asked to serve his drive-through penalty when the safety car came in on lap 25, but he stayed out for a couple more laps before eventually coming in on lap 27 while in second place. As the cars had closed the gap due to the safety car period, the Williams driver rejoined the race in 14th place.
Toyota’s Timo Glock was the biggest beneficiary, as he had quietly crept up to third behind Vettel and Hamilton, who were battling it out in front. And it was to become even better for the Toyota driver when Vettel pitted for the second time on lap 39, as the Red Bull driver was caught speeding down the pit lane, and he too had to serve a drive-through penalty.
Vettel served his penalty on lap 43, which put him down in 11th. But that was not the end of Red Bull’s problems. Mark Webber had problems with his brake ducts, which the team tried to fix in a lengthy 14-second pit stop. Two laps later however, Webber’s brakes failed completely, and his car spun off at the turn 1 corner, ending his Championship hopes in the process. As a precaution, Red Bull’s second team Toro Rosso withdrew their cars as well, ending a disappointing weekend for Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi.
All was not lost however, as Vettel managed to claw his way back into the points when the front-runners pitted for the second time, eventually finding himself in fourth spot. The numerous mishaps and casualties however, meant that while Hamilton was still comfortably leading the race, Glock was now second and Renault’s Fernando Alonso had climbed to third. Jenson Button was now in fifth after starting the race from a disappointing 12th, while his teammate Rubens Barrichello was one position behind.
And that was how the race finished, with Hamilton taking a comfortable and popular victory under the Singapore night sky. Timo Glock got a surprise second for Toyota, the best result for the team all season. Alonso got third, which was some consolation after an extremely tough week for the Renault team. Vettle eventually finished in fourth, keeping him in the Championship race, while Button led his teammate Barrichello in 5th and 6th respectively. McLaren’s Hekki Kovalainen and BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica rounded off the point scorers.
Button, with 84 points, now has a 15 point lead in the Drivers’ Championship over his teammate Barrichello, who sits on 69 points with three races to go. Vettel’s fourth place means that he just about stays in the running, but still 25 points behind the Briton on 59 points. However, Mark Webber’s retirement means that he is mathematically out of the Championship running.
In the Constructors’ Championship, Brawn GP now has a commanding lead over Red Bull Racing, with Brawn on 153 points over Red Bull’s 110.5. Hamilton’s win, combined with Ferrari’s poor performance in Singapore, means that McLaren-Mercedes now close to within three points of the Italian team in third, with Ferrari now sitting on 62 points to McLaren’s 59. |
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