F1: Ten Glorious Years of Singapore Grand Prix

#6 2014: Hamilton Shines under Lights

Lewis Hamilton after securing an important victory in the championship race

Lewis Hamilton came out victorious in this edition of Singapore Grand Prix, which vaulted him into the lead of the World Drivers Championship, only for the second time in the season.

The Briton’s route to his seventh win of the season started on a positive note when his team-mate-cum-title rival suffered a steering loom failure, which forced out Rosberg's W05 from the grid to the end of the pitlane to join at the back of the field.

The German had to fight hosts of electronically-related glitches, which rendered one of the two fastest cars unfit to take on the pack on a hot, humid night. The hitherto championship leader had to retire from the race on lap 15.

Up ahead, Hamilton was on his way to inflict maximum damage on his teammate, as he pulled away from the chasing gang, initially from Ferrari bound Sebastian Vettel and then from Ferrari departing Fernando Alonso.

But his charge was halted, when Singapore’s routine mid-race Safety Car threw race strategies out of the window and spiced up the proceedings, which made the lone Mercedes driver’s route to the victory rather, bit complicated.

After the safety car period, Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo, having already used both soft and super soft tires, switched to run the remaining 30+ laps without stopping, which helped them to jump Fernando Alonso who had to make the third stop later to make the mandatory switch to yellow-colored soft tires.

Hamilton was able to build a huge lead over the two Red Bull drivers to build a one-complete pit stop advantage over Vettel. He built a 26 seconds lead in 15 laps of what now famously called as “Hammertime”.

Although he emerged behind Vettel after his stop, new tires mean he could leapfrog in one lap over the Red Bull, which was struggling for grip, and the Briton eventually won by a 13-second margin.

Behind the top four, Felipe Massa secured fifth for Williams, Jean-Eric Vergne (out of a drive for 2015) finished sixth, ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.