Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel recorded yet another start-to-finish win at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday to further extend his lead in the Formula One championship.
The German was in a class of his own under the Marina Bay lights, winning by a massive 32.6 seconds over Fernando Alonso and boosting his championship lead on the Ferrari driver from 53 points to 60 with six races remaining.
Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen was third, ahead of the Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
Starting in pole, Vettel lost the lead at the first corner to Rosberg but took it back as the Mercedes driver ran wide at turn two, and even a safety car period just before half distance, which eroded his 12-second lead, could not prevent another Vettel victory.
Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber had sharply different fortunes in the race. The Australian was threatening Raikkonen in the closing stages, only to have an engine failure which saw him pull off the track with his car in flames on the closing lap.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was sixth, ahead of the McLaren pair Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Force India’s Adrian Sutil completing the top ten.
Vettel’s victory was his third in a row in Singapore, his seventh of the season and 33rd of his career, moving him out of a tie with Alonso and into outright fourth place in the all-time list behind Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
