It was an emotional Sunday at the Singapore Grand Prix. Two hours into the race with Hamilton balancing the numbers and staying ahead of Vettel after overtaking to victory.
With five races to go in the championship Hamilton wins in Singapore and rises to first place. It is Hamilton's 7th win this season and 29th of his career.
After stealing the "pole" from Rosberg "James Bond" (0.007 sec. faster than his colleague), Hamilton ends up balancing the score. A failure of the Mercedes team, with Nico Rosberg's car showing great difficulties since the start, the Mercedes driver gave up on the 14th lap.
A touch between Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil led to the entry of the Safety Car on lap 31. The Sauber de Sutil lost its rear wing and left debris scattered around the track. The Safety Car went off track on lap 37.
The Safety Car entry gave Hamilton a big advantage. With super soft tires he managed to distance himself from Vettel (2nd) and Ricciardo (3rd). Gaining distance, Hamilton spent 30 laps on Pirelli's super soft tyres, a remarkable performance given the British rider's high pace.
The trips to the pits were marked by Perez's 4 stops, one of which was to change the front after the touch and, of course, by Hamilton's tire change, which allowed Vettel to take the lead for 1 lap.
Not taking the pressure, Vettel ended the Singapore Grand Prix seeing the rear of Lewis Hamilton's silver arrow from 17.5 seconds away. Further back, the Frenchman Vergne, who had been penalized in 5 seconds, on the last lap gave everything and with two risky overtaking managed to keep sixth place, passing Raikkonen and Bottas.
The last lap was frustrating for Valtteri Bottas, one of the biggest losers in this Grand Prix, who, without tires, ended up leaving the scoring places (11th).
With two Red Bulls on the podium (2nd Vettel, 3rd Ricciardo) something that hasn't happened since the Canadian Grand Prix, the spotlight is on Hamilton. Vettel, who was four times world champion, finished in second place, in what was his best performance in the championship. Alonso finished in 4th place, unable to get close to Ricciardo's Red Bull.
In the overall table Hamilton leads by 3 points over his teammate (N.Rosberg) and Ricciardo is in third. In the constructors' championship, Mercedes is approaching the number of points to guarantee victory: Mercedes 479 points, Red Bull Racing Renault – 305, Williams Mercedes – 187, Ferrari – 178.
Singapore Grand Prix final ranking:
1st Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2nd Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
3rd Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
4th Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
5th Felipe Massa (Williams)
6th Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
7th Sergio Perez (Force India)
8th Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
9th Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
10th Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)
11th Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
12th Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)
13th Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
14th Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
15th Marcus Ericsson (Caterham)
16th Jules Bianchi (Marussia)
17th Max Chilton (Marussia)
Abandoned:
Performance lap – Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)
14th lap – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
18th lap – Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)
41st lap – Adrian Sutil (Sauber)
54th lap – Jenson Button (McLaren)