Vettel dominates as Safety Car spices up strategies in Singapore

Vettel dominated the Singapore GP

Sebastian Vettel dominated the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix to take his seventh Grand Prix win of the season, with this victory being most comprehensive of all. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen made most of the Safety Car to finish on the podium alongside the German.

Vettel got a poor getaway at the start of the race with Rosberg making the most of it to get past the triple World Champion as they went down into turn 1. But Rosberg’s lead was short lived as the German went wide into turn 2, handling the lead back to his fellow countrymen.

From there on, it was no looking back for Sebastian Vettel as he blazed away from the rest of the field. Within a few laps his gap to second placed Rosberg was equal to length of the pit straight. That urged his race engineer Rocky to instruct him to slow down as there was a risk of Safety Car wiping his lead. And that’s what exactly happened on lap 25 when his future teammate Daniel Ricciardo crashed into the barriers just before the track goes underneath the grandstand.

When the race restarted on lap 31, Vettel maintained his race lead, which increased to over 30 seconds before the Chequered Flag was waved after the same number of laps.

It wasn’t as straightforward for his rivals as Safety Car spiced up their strategies. Ferraris, Lotus’ and the two McLarens decided to take the advantage of the Safety Car and make their second step. This placed them behind Vettel, Rosberg, Webber and Hamilton, who all decided not to stop under the Safety Car. From there it was clear that some of the drivers belonging to the first group will be completing the race without an additional stop and that’s what exactly happened.

On lap 41, Webber brought a chain reaction when he made his third and final pit stop. That stop got him ahead of Nico Rosberg, who pitted a lap later. Hamilton pitted a few laps later and followed his teammate. These drivers then faced an uphill tasks of overtaking the two-stoppers. Webber lead the trio and moved up into third place before his engine failed, bringing his car to hault on the final lap.

All this time, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, who made their pit stops during the Safety Car were able to maintain their pace and finish on the podium alongside Sebastian Vettel. That couldn’t be said about the two McLarens, particularly Jenson Button, as they looked powerless during the final few laps of the race.

In the end, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton just finished outside of the podium in third and fourth ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Jenson Button kept his teammate bay for seventh place, who in turn finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Force India’s Adrian Sutil picked up the final championship point.