Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel has collected yet another win in the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship, bringing him even closer to his second world title. The Red Bull ace who has been having a phenomenal season this year was the first driver to cross the finish line under the beautiful night sky at the Singapore GP.
The German who started the 61-lap race around the breathtaking Marina Bay street circuit from pole position finished the race ahead of fellow World Champion Jenson Button from McLaren and team mate Mark Webber. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fourth while fifth was taken up by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren. Force India’s Paul di Resta was sixth. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was seventh followed by Adrian Sutil from Force India, Felipe Massa from Ferrari and Sauber’s Sergio Perez in tenth.
Lotus Renault struggled today as Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov only managed 15th and 17th respectively. Both drivers sandwiched Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen as team mate Jarno Trulli joined Michael Schumacher and Timo Glock in the retirement’s list.
As soon as the start lights went off, all drivers charged to Turn 1 and everyone managed to keep their noses clean with no drama whatsoever. Vettel enjoyed a good start while Webber dropped to fourth from second. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had better starts as he dropped down to seventh after starting from fourth. Just moments after the start, the night race picked up its first casualty as Daniel Ricciardo broke his front wing. Nevertheless the HRT driver pitted and continued racing.
By Lap 6, Vettel was running in first and increasing his lead from Button, Alonso, Webber, Massa, Rosberg, Hamilton, Schumacher and the two Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and di Resta. Soon drivers started to make their first scheduled stops and the race moved on with minor yellow flags and few incidents including a retirement by Virgin’s Timo Glock when he spun into the barriers at Turn 18.
Moments after both Hamilton and Massa made their stops, both drivers suffered from contact as Hamilton tried to make a move on Massa. That incident resulted in a broken front wing for Hamilton and a rear puncture for Massa. Both drivers had to pit again and that easily dropped them down the grid. A while later, Hamilton received a drive through penalty from the race stewards which pushed him back further.
As Vettel crossed the line on Lap 29, it was Button, Webber, Alonso, di Resta, Sutil, Rosberg, Perez, Schumacher and Hamilton who made up the top ten. A lap later, just when you thought the Safety Car would not be deployed this time around, Schumacher’s Mercedes racer ‘flew’ into the air after his front left tyre came into contact with Sergio Perez’ right rear tyre. The Sauber driver managed to continue racing but Schumacher crashed into the barriers and the SLS was deployed.
After the Safety Car was pulled back in at about Lap 33, Vettel managed to maintain his lead ahead of Button, Webber, Alonso, di Resta, Rosberg, Sutil, Hamilton, Perez and Massa. The Safety Car benefited drivers such as Hamilton who was placed right back into the top eight following his accident and his subsequent penalty. The champion gave a good show as he was carrying out some hair raising overtaking moves.
With five laps remaining, Vettel’s gap against Button was reducing as the latter was able to set faster lap times and the former had to deal with back markers. With three laps to go, the gap was 3.7 seconds but with one lap remaining the gap increased to 5.6 seconds as Button lost a lot time negotiating traffic. The Brit couldn’t do much and Vettel who drove a smooth and clean race crossed the finish line in first.
In the championship standings, Vettel now has 309 points while Jenson Button is second with 185 points, just one point ahead of Fernando Alonso. Red Bull is 491 points strong while McLaren lies second with 353 points and Ferrari in third with 268 points. You can safely expected Vettel and Red Bull to clinch both titles this season but the battle still remains for second place in the Driver’s Championship between Button and Alonso. More will be revealed on 9th October at the Japanese GP.
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Sebastian Vettel drives with one eye close, using one hand and one leg also can beat Hamilton and Alonso easily.
Mean while. Group Lotus manage to beat Team Lotus by 1 position. Great Success group Lotus! :P
heikki kovalainen beat petrov LOL!!!!
Dude, Lotus Renault sandwiched Heikki of Tem Lotus.
the gloating must endless
and the haenas gonna have great field day!
WTF wrong with you drMpower?
Great sucess u said???Seriously???if you are trying to be sarcastic i can well understand your humour otherwise an established F1 team for so long just barely able to stay ahead of team lotus car….SUPER DUPER FAIL TEAM!!!
Vettel will become the youngest double world champion in the next race :)!!!!
awesome car,awesome driver,awesome team….how not to be no 1 ?!
RESPECT !
simply a waste of time this race
it has no style no substance at all in it
i am not talking about this one race last night
but the whole thing singapore grandprix
apart from the glitzy parties, bird n boozes, theres nothing in it
no great circuit layout, it was dusty and uninteresting at all
and although positioned in between transition of european to asian race slots
this isnt significant at all and f1 certainly can without it
i dont know what they offered to the already extensive f1 races
money could be the only reason i can think of now
but with bernie and co talking about safety of the drivers and racing teams
and saving money,
to race in a city without significant purpose certainly can help in those areas
plus i dont know hows the tv rating on this gp because apparently singapore is not great in population (i mean how significant singapore people contribution to the already great ratings of the tv)
which we may relate to the insignificant market exposure to the locals, compare to lets say india where the numbers of people is around 1.2 billion. as comparison, singapore is on 4 million over ( world bank, 2009 )
so with f1 to go near the ordinary people, whats the point of spending so much for a mere 4million potential market? lets save money and concentrate to bigger markets.
india is a great decision in term of expanding the sports over the world and present much better cost effective than singapore
the only matter circuit race is monaco. it got the ego, the glitzy parties, history, everything. the only matter night race (as of greater surrounding, safer controlled environment, and for the sake of racing at night) is abu dhabi.
if bernie means all he talked about, it must be no continuation of the current contract to singapore grandprix.
well said partner!
Do you have been to Singapore during the GP??
if i say yes would that make u love me?
yawnnn, don’t troll your worthless rant here, ~ tell that to bernie ecclestone if you’re that smart that is… let me guess, you’re another one of those deep envy jealous troll i suppose? i guess your arguments suites the old, boring, dusty & dilapidated sepang circuit very well.
oh no.
not again. people must be blind these days, aye?
i even include the significance of bigger market and cost effectiveness in my posting, yet i was dismissed as jelaousy troll?
omagad really i am wasting my time
i must return to the cave, strip away this suit and ma shiny knickers.
i have got to carry my bow n my arrows go hunting for ma supper n ma dinner
oh my god
i’ve been cursedddddd
but really smarta55,
name me one u find at singapore that exceed whats on offer at monaco?
apart from of course yellow skinned persona and perhaps…dust?
another boring race…everyone line up pls.
Singapore aint that bad an event, much overrated and much hyped? Yes, Bad circuit? No.
But what gets me is that Malaysia has a great circuit, has more overtaking opportunities than most other circuits and yet it never seems to get the adulation that Singapore receives. Nor the same amount as TV coverage as Singapore.
As for race coverage, us poor lot have to do with crappy ESPN Star Sports which is full of adverts and incessant rambling from one Steve Slater, it got so bad yesterday I switched to online streaming from the BBC.
so, what’s the technical reason that Renault seem very slow in this race? had googled this up but couldn’t find a technical explanation from Renault. Anyone know?
Because the Group Lotus badge weights the car down by a lot.