Singapore GP Race Report: Sebastian Vettel takes victory, fan on the track!

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has won the Singapore Grand Prix after starting in pole, closing out the race in dominant fashion. Following a two-stop strategy, the German took his 3rd win of the year, following victories at the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang and the Hungarian Grand Prix. Third in the standings behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, he goes up to 203 points.

Vettel is now only 8 points behind second-placed Nico Rosberg, and two race wins away from equalling Lewis Hamilton, provided Hamilton finishes without points in those two races as he has today.

This year marked Vettel’s 4th win at the venue in the 7 years of the race’s existence.

Rosberg himself was in P4 behind Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who rounded up the podium behind Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. Rosberg’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was the reigning champion at the track after starting the 2014 race in pole, retired after attempting to deal with a power loss situation which did not improve as the race progressed.

The race saw the 4th double retirement of the year for McLaren-Honda, with Jenson Button retiring in Lap 53 after McLaren engineers told him they were “taking too many chances with the gearbox”. Teammate Fernando Alonso had retired earlier in the race, also with a gearbox failure.

Ridiculously, a fan casually sauntered onto the track, with Vettel and other drivers incredulously relaying the information over team radio. The man caused the safety car to be deployed as Vettel’s lead over Ricciardo shortened, but the German regained most of his lead and held on to it until the end of the race.

Several drivers tried the undercut at different points during the race, but the attempt yielded disastrous results for Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, who attempted to go on the outside of Felipe Massa and clipped the Williams driver, veering off course and into the wall. Hulkenberg retired immediately, with Massa suffering through the damage to his car and retiring himself.

There were several retirements at the Grand Prix, although the most notable of these was Hamilton’s. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean also retired.

Ferrari are still second in the drivers’ championships, but their 240 point deficit to Mercedes will be cushioned with today’s double podium finish. Although Vettel started on pole and finished the race in first, he was prevented from winning the Grand Chelem – which involves starting on pole, finishing in first, and having the fastest lap of the race – as the last of those was taken by Ricciardo.

Full standings at the end of the race: