Singapore GP Race Recap

Hamilton triumphs while Ferrari stumbles in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton gave a crushing blow to Sebastian Vettel’s title aspirations with an unexpected Singapore GP victory as he extended his championship lead to 28 points after his rival retired on a chaotic opening lap.

Hamilton started in fifth place due to the Silver Arrow’s weekend-long struggles, but grabbed the lead on a dramatic first lap, which saw the retirements of both Ferraris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Vettel, Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen tangled together on the run down into the first corner, leaving Hamilton to take a comfortable victory, ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas who completed the podium.

Storms battered the circuit in the build up to the race, with drivers split on strategies opting between Intermediate or Full Wets.

When the Singapore Grand Prix began, pole-sitter Vettel got off to a so-so run off the line as did Verstappen and Räikkönen got a great launch from fourth place.

Vettel pushed to cover Verstappen as Räikkönen dived up the inside and the trio clustered together with Verstappen and Räikkönen colliding.

Räikkönen fired into Vettel as the Finn’s SF70H racer continued out of control into turn one where he collected Verstappen once more, who ran into McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

Räikkönen reported to his team over the radio “I’m OK but it’s just ridiculous,” as his car came to a halt.

Alonso started from eighth and took the outside line as the Spaniard attempted to gain places, but was flicked into the air by a helpless Verstappen, and ended his race nine laps later.

Vettel meanwhile held the lead, but his SF70H suffered terminal damage with a huge hole on the left-hand side leaking coolant onto the track.

Vettel lost control between turns three and four, hitting the wall with the front-end sustaining further damage and surrendered the lead to Hamilton as the team instructed Vettel to retire.

The incident is currently being investigated by the stewards.

Hamilton meanwhile, moved passed Ricciardo off the line from the third row as the Briton avoided the chaos which took place on his left, before taking the lead when Vettel spun his SF70H racer.

Hamilton comfortably held on for the entire race, keeping Ricciardo at bay following a further two Safety Car deployments.

The first period came when Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat ploughed into the turn 7 barriers, when Ricciardo opted for a fresh set of Intermediates causing Hamilton to question Mercedes’ strategy.

Hamilton rapidly moved clear and rebuilt a solid lead before the track dried enough for slicks with the pairing switching to the faster Ultra-Softs during the mid-point of the race.

However, Hamilton’s 10-second gap was eliminated when Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson spun at turn 12 with his C36 coming to a stop, facing backwards on the Anderson Bridge.

Hamilton who then questioned Race Control’s decision to bring out the Safety Car over the radio, rather than deploying the Virtual Safety Car, quickly pulled away before Ricciardo slowly reeled the three-time World Champion in.

The Mercedes crew explained to Hamilton that it wanted him to build and keep a comfortable gap to Ricciardo in the event of another Safety Car period, but Hamilton opposed the plan.

Mercedes gave Hamilton permission to control the pace and edged away reaching the chequered flag with a 4.507 second lead over Ricciardo after 58 laps as they reached the two-hour limit.

“It was really unfortunate for Ferrari, but a great result for our team,” explained Hamilton after taking his seventh victory of the season. “Daniel put up a really good fight today, so I enjoyed racing him,”

“I was hoping I would get to race with Sebastian at the beginning, When I got around to Turn 3 I had Sebastian in front so I was like, ‘I’m going to have a real race here’. Of course, it’s better the way it is!”

Thunderstorms drenched the Marina Bay Street Circuit in the build up to the race and Hamilton admitted that he “knew where I was going to finish” once the mixed conditions occurred.

“I mean you’re just focused on winning, so I was just trying to get to the front,” Hamilton continued. “I needed it to rain, and as soon as it rained I knew where I was going to finish,”

“I knew I had the pace when it rained, unfortunately we didn’t have the car in the dry, [but] in the rain, those are my conditions.” Hamilton said.

Bottas struggled during the early proceedings of the race, holding sixth place despite the action in-front of him as the Silver Arrows guided him home to take third place.

Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz finished a career-best fourth place and holding his ground against Force India’s Sergio Pérez who took fifth place and continued his points scoring form in Singapore.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer made great places up at the start and held off Bottas when the race resumed to hold fifth, before coming home in sixth place, taking his first points of the season and finished in-front of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who came home in seventh and also scored his best F1 point’s finish.

Williams’ Lance Stroll finished in eighth after a difficult weekend and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who was ninth and Force India’s Esteban Ocon who rounded out the top 10.

The other Williams of Felipe Massa and Sauber’s twice-lapped Pascal Wehrlein finished in 11^th and 12^th respectively and were the final two drivers to finish.

Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg had a solid run early on, running as high as third place after the drama, and kept fourth as conditions improved throughout the race.

However, the German dived into the pits during the third appearance of the Safety Car due to a suspected loss of hydraulic air and retired a few laps later.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen put on a gutsy performance as the Dane fought for points with the feature moment being a three-way battle between himself, Massa and Ocon, which saw the trio tangle and cause minor contact.

Magnussen was the first to put on the slick Ultra-Soft rubber, which turned out to be the right call as his rivals followed suit and disaster struck when the Dane’s Ferrari-powered VF-17 suffered an MGU-K failure.

Hülkenberg and Magnussen were the only drivers to encounter mechanical issues while Kvyat, Ericsson, Vettel, Verstappen, Alonso and Räikkönen all retired due to collisions.

2017 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix Full Results Classification (58 Laps)

2017 World Drivers Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 263 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel – 235 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas – 212 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 162 Points
5. Kimi Räikkönen – 138 Points
6. Max Verstappen – 68 Points
7. Sergio Pérez – 68 Points
8. Esteban Ocon – 56 Points
9. Carlos Sainz – 48 Points
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points

2017 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG F1 – 475 Points
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 373 Points
3. Red Bull Racing – 230 Points
4. Force India F1 Team – 124 Points
5. Williams Martini Racing – 59 Points
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 52 Points
7. Renault Sport F1 – 42 Points
8. Haas F1 Team – 37 Points
9. McLaren-Honda F1 – 17 Points
10. Sauber F1 Team – 5 Points

Round 15 of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the 2017 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix from Friday September 29- Sunday October 1.

Written by Michael Terminello