Sebastian Vettel has won the Singapore GP after a luckless Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire from the lead of the race with a broken gearbox.
Vettel wins from Button and Alonso; Hamilton forced into retirement from the lead of the race after gearbox failure; Di Resta with best-ever finish; Both Williams also forced to retire
Sebastian Vettel has trimmed Fernando Alonso's lead of the World Championship to 29 points after winning a Singapore GP that looked to be the property of Lewis Hamilton until the McLaren driver's luckless retirement with a broken gearbox.
In a rough and ragged race that beat the clock and was brought to a halt after passing the two-hour mark, Hamilton's cruel retirement - unannounced and understood to be unrelated to his brush with the wall during qualifying - from what had appeared to be a comfortable lead was the marathon's defining moment. To compound the cruelty, it might also prove a decisive moment in a World Championship battle that continues to fluctuate wildly below the summit.
"We had the pace this weekend, it would have been easy from where we were," Hamilton told
Sky Sports F1 after an hour's reflection in the sanctuary of the McLaren motorhome. "We really couldn't afford today but it is what it is. I'll never give up."
Brave words but, with Hamilton relegated from second to
fourth in the standings, the Englishman now trails Alonso by over fifty points - the equivalent of two race wins and amounting to a tall order whichever way you look at it. Vettel, on the other hand, is now ominously positioned behind Alonso to claim a third successive title.
Though anything but a classic, it was an action-filled race which developed like the plot of a classic western movie. The good: Vettel's faultless performance both before and after Hamilton's exit to secure victory ahead of Jenson Button and Alonso; the bad: Hamilton's luckless retirement through no fault of his own; and the ugly: Michael Schumacher's inexplicable shunt into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso which drew the afternoon's second Safety Car deployment and, more than two hours after the end of the race, a
ten-place grid drop for the German for the forthcoming Japanese GP.
Vettel himself only narrowly avoided an accident of his own after braking sharply in front of Button as the field snaked around behind the Safety Car. However, that incident - for which the World Champion was later cleared by the stewards for - was the only blemish in an otherwise impeccable display from a driver who had bore a face like thunder after a messy qualifying hour on Saturday. Within twenty-four hours, the grimace had been replaced by a grin and an emotional outpouring which revealed plenty about Vettel's mind-set this weekend.
The win was just the second of his disjointed title defence, and first since Bahrain in April, and the German is aware that the road to a third straight title will continue to be a challenging one between here and Brazil.
"It's great to get the win," Vettel said. "Looking at the race, Lewis had to retire which is a shame for him. I know how it feels and have been in that position before. I think we could have had a tight battle.
"I felt very good on the harder tyres and we had a lot of pace. I think it's very good to get this win here. We know the next few races will be tough, but that's the challenge."
On the podium, Alonso's smile was less pronounced. It was certainly there, and the Spaniard will have welcomed Hamilton's retirement both for the extra points and the reduction of his former team-mate's title prospects, but Ferrari's lack of pace will be of considerable concern. The championship leader has not won a grand prix for over two months and, on this weekend's evidence, Ferrari have apparently fallen further behind both Red Bull and McLaren.
Paul di Resta's did his reputation, static of late, a power of good by recording his best-ever finish of fourth, a fair reward for an accomplished drive that also benefited from the mayhem that occured around his Force India.
With Nico Rosberg producing his strongest drive for several races to bring the sole remaining Mercedes home in fifth, Kimi Raikkonen beat Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean to sixth to remain third in the standings as Felipe Massa took advantage of the Safety Car phases to recover to eighth after a lap-one puncture.
Mark Webber's title hopes had already appeared all-but mathematically over after a difficult race saw him finish behind young countryman Daniel Ricciardo in ninth before even that solitary point was taken away from him in the hours after the race when the very busy stewards' office imposed a 20-second time penalty for overtaking Kamui Kobayashi with all four wheels off the track. Somewhat aptly that punishment promoted the other Sauber, Sergio Perez, to tenth.
After all the pre-race hype about Pastor Maldonado starting alongside Hamilton, the South American was an unusually passive presence, losing places to both Vettel and Button off the line before retiring. Nor was there any relief for his beleaguered and under-pressure team-mate Bruno Senna with the Brazilian also forced out during the closing stages after battling through the field.
Williams' frustration, though, is unlikely to have matched that of McLaren and Hamilton in particular.
F1's box office star continues to ride a roller-coaster of contrasting emotions and hog the headlines. But perhaps most pertinently of all, Hamilton is no longer in box position to usurp Alonso.
Sebastian, over to you?
Pete Gill
