Lewis Hamilton sealed a comfortable win at the Singapore Grand Prix to extend his championship lead to 40 points over rival Sebastian Vettel as another tactical blunder from the Scuderia costed the German a chance of victory.

 

 

Vettel ended the race in third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

 

Hamilton and Vettel made great starts as the Singapore Grand Prix got underway and the pole-sitting Silver Arrows of Hamilton bolted away through the first three corners as Verstappen became under pressure from Vettel in an early battle for second place.

 

Drama followed behind them as the two Force India’s tangled with Sergio Perez nipping his team-mate Esteban Ocon into the outside wall at turn three ending the Frenchman’s race early and brought out the safety car.

 

Before race control equalised the field, Vettel got a better exit at the fifth corner to go side-by-side of Verstappen and passed the RB14 on the outside into turn seven.

 

With that, most of the top ten remained in starting grid order with Valtteri Bottas holding fourth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Roman Grosjean.

 

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Renault’s Carlos Sainz who were running ultrasofts gained two positions on lap one at Nico Hulkenberg’s expense and Ocon’s early retirement.

 

The race went running again on lap four, but the frontrunners were taking it easier on the hypersofts by extending their opening stint as much as possible and running almost 11 seconds off their qualifying pace.

 

As they passed the first ten laps the pit window was wide open as Vettel blinked first and pitted on lap 14 and took on a set of ultrasofts.

 

The stop became a disaster for Vettel as he came out behind the Force India of Perez and was held up for two laps.

 

Meanwhile Hamilton and Verstappen pitted one lap after the other to put on the more durable soft rubber with an easier run to the end.

 

Hamilton returned back to the net lead of the Grand Prix with Verstappen’s Tag Heuer-branded Renault engine stuttering as he exited the pits, but the Dutchman just got ahead of Vettel.

 

The pitstop saw Hamilton have a three second lead over Verstappen as Ricciardo was the last of the frontrunners to pit on the twenty-seventh lap.

 

Vettel was frustrated in third telling the team “We were again too late. We will not make it to the end.”

 

As in Monaco, the drivers who started outside the top ten with a free tyre choice to their advantage benefited over some of the others in-front who began on the hypersofts.

 

When Perez, Hulkenberg and Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean switched their hypersoft rubber, they emerged behind the backmarker Williams pairing of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, who both started on the soft compounds and were not ready to stop.

 

This brought the second major incident of the race when Perez became frustrated with Sirotkin and swerved at the Russian as he finally made it through at turn 17 on the 33^rd lap, suffering a puncture in the process and allowing Hulkenberg to get by.

 

As Grosjean followed the RS18 of Hulkenberg, the pairing impeded Hamilton as he came by to lap them, momentarily allowing Verstappen to go into attacking range of the Mercedes.

 

Once they cleared the pairing, Hamilton increased his lead back to three seconds and remained in control until crossing the line to take his 69^th career victory, with the gap reaching 8.9 seconds clear of Verstappen who came home in second place and Vettel finished a further 30.9 seconds down in third.

 

As Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas managed their tyres to the end, a fight for fourth escalated when in the closing stages when Ricciardo charged in on Raikkonen’s Ferrari, who also came close on Bottas. But nothing changed as Bottas took fourth place.

 

Alonso finished best of the rest in his McLaren after starting 11^th on the grid with the Spaniard taking advantage of his long ultrasoft run to gain positions off Perez and Grosjean and undercut fellow Spanish compatriot Sainz for seventh as he made his sole stop on lap 38.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc ended the race in the points behind Sainz in ninth place and ahead of Hulkenberg’s Renault who completed the top ten.

 

The other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson finished in 11^th place and in-front of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who was 12^th and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly who took 13^th.

 

Stroll’s Williams came home in 14^th place and ahead of Grosjean’s 15^th placed Haas and Force India’s Perez who crossed the line in 16^th place.

 

The other Honda-powered Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley finished a low 17^th and in-front of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Sirotkin’s Williams who both finished two laps down at the rear.

 

The Formula 1 2018 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix Race Results Classification (61 Laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	61	1h51m11.611s
2	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	61	8.961s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	61	39.945s
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	61	51.930s
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	61	53.001s
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	61	53.982s
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	61	1m43.011s
8	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	60	1 Lap
9	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	60	1 Lap
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	60	1 Lap
11	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	60	1 Lap
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	60	1 Lap
13	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	60	1 Lap
14	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	60	1 Lap
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	60	1 Lap
16	Sergio Perez	Racing Point Force India F1 Team	60	1 Lap
17	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	60	1 Lap
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	59	2 Laps
19	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	59	2 Laps
–	Esteban Ocon	Racing Point Force India F1 Team	0	Collision

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 281 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 241 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 174 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 171 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 148 Points.
6. Daniel Ricciardo – 126 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 53 Points.
8. Fernando Alonso – 50 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 49 Points.
10. Sergio Perez – 46 Points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 452 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 415 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 274 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 91 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 76 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 58 Points.
7. Racing Point Force India F1 Team – 32 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 30 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 21 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 7 Points.

 

Round 16 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia for the Formula 1 2018 VTB Russian Grand Prix from Friday September 28-Sunday September 30.