Vettel dominates in Singaporeposted in F120 | 09 | 2015
FERRARI'S SEBASTIAN VETTEL won the Singapore Grand Prix having started from pole position. But while there was delight in the Maranello camp, there was abject misery in Lewis Hamilton's side of the Mercedes garage.
The defending world champion, and current leader, was forced to retire with an engine problem. The double champ now heads to Japan this weekend having seen his championship lead cut to 41 points over his team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Vettel was untroubled throughout the race. In fact his only moment of concern was when he spotted a spectator walking along the side of the rack before disappearing through a gap in the safety fencing.
The appearance of the 27-year-old man, who was later arrested and faces up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of £1143 (2500 Singapore dollars), caused the appearance of the safety car for a second time.
"I think I saw him take a picture," Vettel said afterwards. "I hope it was a good one at least, in focus. It was pretty crazy: we're approaching that corner at 280km/h. I wouldn't cross the track if I was him.
"I don't know, maybe we need to block the grandstand a bit better. Fortunately nothing happened to me or to him. It was pretty odd, obviously that is not what you expect."
While Vettel cruised to his third win of the year, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo finished second with the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium.
Hamilton had been running fourth, and closing on the leading trio, when he reported a loss of power. Despite his Mercedes team spending several laps trying to find a solution, the decision was taken to retire the car after the Briton dropped to 16th.
Related: Hamlton wins at Monza after tyre scare
Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff later said Mercedes had identified the problem and is confident Hamilton will not have to change the engine for the Japanese Grand Prix.
"We had a very minor bit — a metal clamp — that broke and had a massive effect," Wolff explained. "The clamp was on plenum, and was holding the plenum together and when it jumped off it caused a boost leak.
"It was a freak, yeah. We ran that design for a long time. It's a typical metal clamp and it just broke. Lewis's engine shouldn't have any problem."
Hamilton, meanwhile, remained pragmatic.
"The race was going really well, then the engine just lost easily half power, so I was just driving round slowly," he said. "It was like driving on the pit limiter.
"I was dead last, Sebastian was half a lap ahead of me, if not more, so even if the power had come back and I had pushed I would have just wasted an engine.
"I may have got one point, but I doubt it very much because you can't overtake here. But we'll fight for another day.
"I was feeling really good out there, I was so optimistic. I had more pace in the car so I was getting excited about the pitstops and when I could start pushing and where I could get up to.
"In my mind I thought I might have the chance to win this race, but then I lost power. I felt confident I was able to at least get up to second or third, but it's all ifs or buts."
It was Hamilton's first retirement in 20 races, and Mercedes' second engine problem in as many races following Rosberg's fault at Monza. The German finished fourth in Singapore, 14.2s behind Vettel.
Earlier, the virtual safety car — followed by the 'real' safety car — made its first appearance when Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg collided at Turn 3.
Having just pitted, Massa was rejoining the track in his Williams when the Force India of Hulkenberg made contact with him at the apex. The impact speared the German into the barriers.
The stewards deemed Hulkenberg was at fault and handed him a three-place grid drop for next weekend's Japanese GP.
though Massa continued, but had to pit because of a puncture to his front-right tyre before he later retired having reported gearbox issues.
F1 Singapore Grand Prix — Result:
1. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 61 laps 2hr 01m 22.118s
2. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault +1.4s
3. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari +17.1s
4. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes +24.7s
5. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes +34.2s
6. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault +35.5s
7. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +50.8s
8. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault +51.4s
9. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault +52.8s
10. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari +1m 30s
11. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari +1m 37.5s
12. Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes +1m 37.7ss
13. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes +2 laps
14. Alexander Rossi USA Manor-Ferrari +2 laps
15. Will Stevens GBR Manor-Ferrari +2 laps
Not Classified
Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda
Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda
Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes
Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes
Fastest lap
Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 50.623s
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Jim McGill