Sebastian Vettel back to title hunt after winning action-packed Singapore Grand Prix

German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel utilized all present conditions to revive title hopes to win the 2012 Formula 1 world championship for the third time in a row after scoring a comfortable victory in Singapore over the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of Jenson Button and championship leader Fernando Alonso driving for the Scuderia Ferrari.

Once the leading Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton lost drive, forcing the 2008 Formula 1 world champion to quit after 22 laps due to a gearbox failure, Sebastian Vettel had no trouble in keeping Jenson Button’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 at distance as the Englishman fought with the balance of the soft Pirelli tires. Furthermore, Spanish Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso did lack the pace to get near the leading duo.

Indeed, it was a race where reliability issues played a crucial role in determining the final standings and the outcome of the race. Fernando Alonso was a little fortunate that besides a retired Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, a challenging Pastor Maldonado parked his Williams in the pits with hydraulic problems after 38 laps.

With Lewis Hamilton out of the race, the lead of German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was unchallenged as, further back, several chaos initiators interrupted the flow of what became a 59 rather than 61-lap race as the two-hour limit was reached due to the two safety car phases.

The first safety car was deployed on the 33rd lap when Narain Karthikeyan hit the wall in his HRT. There was a lengthy delay while this was retrieved. The race however, which had been resumed on the 39th lap, was again brought to a second safety car phase, when Michael Schumacher on Mercedes missed the braking point and rammed the back of the 10th-placed Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne who was battling with Sauber's Sergio Perez, resulting in retirement for both. It was the second time in succession Schumacher had retired in Singapore after running into the back of another car - and the second time this season after doing the same to the Williams of Bruno Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix.

He said there was a problem with the car that meant it did not brake in a normal manner; later however he admitted to the stewards that it was his mistake. As a result, he was given a 10-place grid penalty for the next round, which will be held Japan.


The second safety car period, prompted by the German, lasted until the 42nd lap, whereupon German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel simply took up where he left off. Remaining Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button pushed hard for a while and reduced the gap to 1.5s, but in the latter stages of the race, Sebastia Vettel opened the gap and was 8.9s ahead by the finish line, with Fernando Alonso was another 6.2s down.

A career-best fourth place went to Paul di Resta, who was in shape all afternoon in his Force India and under no threat from Nico Rosberg, who drove a discreet race for Mercedes to keep both Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean at bay as Felipe Massa fought his way up from a first-lap puncture to take a strong eighth for Ferrari.

This strong drive might have helped secure Felipe Massa's future at Ferrari, including an improvisational pass and drift on the Williams of Bruno Senna into Turn 13.
Toro Rosso scored points by Daniel Ricciardo, who held off the attacking Red Bull of Mark Webber all the way to the flag after the Australian went for a third pit stop under the second safety car.

Sergio Perez finished a disappointing 11th for Sauber, who had seen other driver Kamui Kobayashi pushed back after contact with Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber, which was under investigation by the stewards. After the race, Mark Webber was given a drive-through penalty for passing Kamui Kobayashi off the track around the outside of Turn Seven on lap 50. Twenty seconds were added to his race time which dropped him down to 11th and promoted Perez to 10th. Kamui Kobayashi also had an incident with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg who followed Mark Webber through but caught his left-rear tire on the Sauber’s sharp edged right front wing endplate.

Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg both made further pit stops as a result, but the Japanese driver recovered to chase Timo Glock across the line. The German pleasured Marussia with this hugely-important 12th place - the team's best F1 result to date - which has big repercussions in their fight with Caterham and HRT, especially as he had been fortunate to escape damage after clobbering a wall earlier on.

Glock’s team mate Charles Pic also ran strongly, but was overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg and Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham in the final stage of the race. The Frenchman also received a 20-second time penalty to factor in after his red flag overtaking indiscretion on Saturday.

Pedro de la Rosa was 17th for HRT after Bruno Senna stopped on the 58th lap. The Brazilian had had an adventurous race which saw him set fastest lap at one stage, battle for points and clash with Felipe Massa in another stage. Vitaly Petrov was also in the wars, and the final finisher for Caterham. He was delayed by the loss of his front wing on the opening lap and then a problem in his final pit stop forced the team to push him back to his garage before his CT-01 could be restarted.

Sebastian Vettel dedicated his victory to the late Professor Sid Watkins who died last week, and for whom there was a minute’s silence on the grid prior to the start.
After the results of this Sunday's race, Fernando Alonso is still leading the 2012 Formula 1 driver's standings with 194 points, in front of Sebastian Vettel on 165 points, Kimi Raikkonen on 149 and Lewis Hamilton on 142.

As well as bringing him back into contention for the title, the German’s win extends Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ standings to 37 with the Milton-Keynes team on 298 to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' 261. Ferrari are third with 245 to Lotus on 231 points, while Mercedes are a distant fifth on 136 points.

AE
24.09.2012
Singapore - Cairo - Abu Dhabi