Over the past few seasons, the Singapore Grand Prix has been dominated by Sebastian Vettel and today was no different. At the end of the long and punishing two hour race Vettel secured his third successive win and was the 33rd time he had seen the chequered flag first, surpassing Alonso's tally.
From looking at the 32.627 second lead Vettel had when he passed the chequered flag, it seemed as though he had been controlling and dominating the race, and he had. Apart from the start of the race where he was challenged by Nico Rosberg, nobody could get near him. It looked as though Rosberg would be leading the race after a better start than Vettel, but he ran wide which allowed Vettel to regain the lead almost as quickly as he lost it.
Vettel continued to dominate the race, and by lap 21 he was ahead of Rosberg by 8.838 seconds. Even the introduction of the safety car at lap 25 wasn't going to ruin Vettel's day as when it returned to the pits he re-built an even bigger lead, allowing them to also make a free pit stop, and after around 30 seconds in the pits he still led the race.
However it wasn't smiles all round in the Red Bull camp. Webber looked set for a fourth place finish until around lap 59 of the 61 lap race. Over the team radio we heard that Webber was nursing a problem, which came to a climax on the last lap of the race when his Red Bull starting emitting flames. It was later confirmed that it was a water pressure problem which ended Webber's race. Luckily Fernando Alonso was on hand to give him a lift back to the pits, which only brought more bad luck for Webber. Rules were broken: Webber went onto the track without permission and Alonso illegally picked Webber up on the way back to the pits. Both drivers received a reprimand for their actions, but Webber's day went from bad to worse when the accumulation of his three reprimands means that he will suffer a 10 place grid penalty at the next race in Korea. Personally I think Alonso giving a lift to Webber was a nice sight for fans to see, and yes Mercedes had to take 'evading action' to avoid crashing into the pair, but it isn't something we see at every race and it was a nice touch to end the race.
Speaking of Alonso, he was a strong contender for driver of the day for me. He made a trademark storming start to the race and made the tyres last from lap 25 to the end of the race and still managed to get the Ferrari on the podium in 2nd place. The fact that the Ferrari could be considered less competitive than other cars around it such as the Mercedes and Lotus yet is still able to be dragged into the podium places by Alonso just shows what an amazing job Alonso is doing. It's not as though he has just done it at this race either, he has been consistently out performing the Ferrari, pushing it to the absolute limit and is doing everything he can to keep the championship alive. If he can't beat Vettel, he is doing the next best thing and secured 2nd today like he did in Monza a few weeks ago.
The Singapore GP kept up it's 100% record of using a safety car during the race after Daniel Ricciardo locked up and hit the barriers on lap 25. Romain Grosjean joined him in retirement after a problem with air consumption on lap 34. The final retirement of the day came from the unlucky Paul Di Resta, who on lap 56 ran into the barriers to retire for the third consecutive race. Up until that point he was another contender for driver of the day because of the way he had battled up the field from 17th place, and was in a steady 7th I think before the incident. A pressured man at the moment, but still a hugely talented driver worthy of a top drive in my own opinion, he is just having a bad spell at the wrong time at the moment. His pass on Gutierrez on lap 50 demonstrated some of the great over-taking he is capable of and yes points today would have taken some of the pressure off him.
I thought I was dreaming when Button was running in 3rd on lap 51 and with 10 laps to go, scoring their first podium of the season was McLaren's aim. To be honest they had nothing to lose with trying to get the podium, with them being miles off 4th in the Constructor's Championship and with a lead over Force India. It was great to see Button up there and it would have been amazing if the tyres could have held on, but Raikkonen, Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg and Massa all managed to pass the poor McLaren, which had done the same amount of laps as Fernando Alonso who was in 2nd position. It ended up that Button and Perez finished in 7th and 8th after Webber's problem and this secured a steady amount of points for the team. The search for a podium continues for them and I really do hope they can achieve it this season, after the tough season that they've had.
The driver of the day for me was Kimi Raikkonen. After suffering from a back problem and qualifying outside the top ten, nobody expected him to be on the podium. He battled through the field though, got the strategy right and gave Lotus something to smile about. Lotus will definitely miss him next season, and Ferrari will hopefully be glad that they've got him.
So from the Singapore Grand Prix Vettel has extended his championship lead to 60 points, McLaren's search for a podium finish continues and Mark Webber's last Singapore GP ends in a penalty after a lift from Alonso. Who will be able to challenge Vettel when F1 arrives in Korea and just how long will it be until he secures the championship?
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