A disciplined drive from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel proved enough to
win a chaotic Singapore Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton retired while in
the lead with a gearbox problem.
Vettel’s second win of the season played into the hands of championship
leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who was third but extended his lead
in the title standings to 39 points.
Second place went to Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button.
Vettel is now Alonso’s closest rival, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and
Hamilton, with six of the 20 races remaining.
The win makes Vettel the first man to win two Singapore Grands Prix
back-to-back.
The safety car came out twice for accidents and the delays resulted in
the race being cut to 61 laps to meet the two-hour time limit.
Michael Schumacher was in line for points before he steamed into the
back of Jean-Eric Vergne to bring out the safety car on lap 39 just
seconds after the end of the first safety car spell, caused by Narain
Karthikeyan bundling his HRT into the barriers.
Hamilton dominated the early stages of the race before he ground to a
halt on lap 23, and is now 52 points behind Alonso.
Vettel had run second since the start and inherited the lead, facing
only minor challenges from Button at the two safety car restarts.
Paul di Resta earned a career best fourth for Force India, Nico Rosberg
was fifth for Mercedes, while Raikkonen battled his way to sixth from
12th on the grid.
Raikkonen’s Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean was seventh after the team
asked him to give way to the Finn, while Felipe Massa rescued eighth for
Ferrari.
Ninth went to Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, while Mark Webber’s
championship hopes took another blow as he finished 10th, leaving the
Australian fifth in the standings, 61 points adrift of Alonso.
Williams had a disappointing afternoon as a hydraulic fault ended Pastor
Maldonado's race after the Venezuelan had started second.
The results:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 2:00:26.144,
2.
Jenson Button (McLaren) +00:08.900,
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
00:15.200,
4. Paul Di Resta (Force India) 00:19.000,
5. Nico Rosberg
(Mercedes) 00:34.700,
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 00:35.700,
7. Romain
Grosjean (Lotus) 00:36.600,
8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 00:42.800,
9.
Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 00:45.800,
10. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
00:47.100.
11. Sergio Perez (Sauber) 00:50.600,
12. Timo Glock (Marussia)
01:31.900,
13. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) 01:37.100,
14. Nico Huelkenberg
(Force India) 01:39.400,
15. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) 01:36.100,
16.
Charles Pic (Marussia), 01:47.400,
17. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT) 1 lap,
18. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham) 2 laps;
Retd:
Bruno Senna
(Williams),
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes),
Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro
Rosso),
Pastor Maldonado (Williams),
Narain Karthikeyan (HRT),
Lewis
Hamilton (McLaren).