Singapore — He may be heading straight for an historic fourth drivers’ title in a row, but rarely has Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull car ever shown a domination of the kind he demonstrated at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
In a masterly show of his driving control and his car’s superiority, Vettel won the night race through the Singapore city streets for a third year in a row, taking his seventh victory of the season and the 33rd of his career.
The German driver was the entire focus of a race that was otherwise largely uneventful, even lethargic — except for a great start by Fernando Alonso, who finished second in his Ferrari after starting seventh, and Kimi Raikkonen, who finished third in his Lotus after starting 13th.
But in finishing a massive 32.6 seconds ahead of Alonso and 43.9 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, Vettel showed just how strong he and his Red Bull are on one of the most grueling tracks and races of the season. But he gave his team all the credit.
“This doesn’t just happen like that, by accident or by luck, there is a lot of work behind it,” Vettel said.
“It is the late hours and commitment that goes in by everybody. It’s one of my favorite races here, I have won three times in a row, and it is incredible.”
The Singapore circuit, which runs through the downtown public roads of the city at night, is one of the trickiest for its combination of tight corners, bumpy surface, and the intense heat and humidity of the race.
The race has also always run to within minutes of the 2-hour limit — as it did on Sunday — tiring even the fittest of drivers.
“This is a long race, it seems to go on forever and there is a lot of things that can go wrong, the walls seem to get close,” Vettel said after the race. “But we like it, it’s one of the toughest challenges all year, so it is a very good feeling when you cross the line as a winner.”
In fact, the warm weather and all the other obstacles the track in a drivers’ way seemed to not to exist for the German. The only threat he had from another driver came at the start, when Nico Rosberg, who had qualified second in his Mercedes to Vettel’s pole position briefly passed the Red Bull at the first corner, only to go off the track slightly and cede position.
Had Rosberg passed at that point, it would have required a different kind of brilliant driving for Vettel to pass on the narrow track and the outcome might have been completely different.
“The start was quite hairy with Nico,” said Vettel. “I had a good start, but fortunately he was braking in a little too deep in Turn 1; but I could get it back, and fortunately we had good pace.”
Vettel immediately built up a gap, racing one second a lap faster than Rosberg for the first seven laps.
But Singapore is also known for its frequent accidents and the resulting safety car periods that neutralize the race. On Sunday such a crucial moment came when Vettel’s future teammate next year, Daniel Ricciardo, ran his Toro Rosso car into the barrier at Turn 18 on Lap 25.
Vettel at that point led the race by 10.9 seconds on Rosberg, and the accident reduced that lead to nothing as the safety car neutralized the race to allow the Toro Rosso to be removed from the track.
The safety car period gave an opportunity for most of the cars to make a pit stop to change tires. But Vettel stayed out, as did Rosberg, Webber and Hamilton immediately behind him.
Without another safety car period, Vettel would have a huge challenge to build up as big a lead as possible — of more than 24 seconds — to make a pit stop and return to the track in the lead.
It looked like a Herculean, even impossible, task.
“Be careful, offline is very dirty, at that speed you’ll struggle to keep up your tires, so stay on line,” his mechanic said to Vettel. “You can use the fuel, we have more fuel than we need. Use the fuel.”
But after the race restarted after Lap 30, and Vettel controlled it and held on to his lead with no problem.
It was the halfway point of the race, and Vettel continued to dominate. In the 10 laps after the safety car Vettel had built a 22-second gap, and he needed a little more than 24 seconds to get in and out of the pits ahead again. He was racing at a colossal 2 seconds a lap faster than just about everyone else on the track.
First Rosberg, on Lap 41, and then Hamilton, on Lap 43, made their second pit stops, leaving Vettel in the lead by 30.6 seconds ahead of Alonso.
Then on Lap 44 Vettel was called into the pits, at the end of the lap. He put on the supersoft tires and that will give him more speed, and after Lap 45, Alonso trailed 4.8 seconds behind Vettel.
The only interest of the race after that came in the last 15 minutes, which were suddenly animated by Raikkonen who passed Jenson Button in a McLaren for third and then Webber’s Red Bull engine blew out and he dropped to 15th place from as high as third, and after he had passed a couple of other drivers in a last dash to try to join Vettel on the podium.
Vettel leads the series by 60 points, with 247 points, ahead of Alonso, who has 187 points. Hamilton, who finished the race in fifth in his Mercedes is third with 151 points, while Raikkonen is fourth with 149 points. There are six races left in the season.
“We will need a lot of luck,” Alonso said of his championship challenge. “We were too slow this weekend, not on a level that we should be. Our second place was like a victory for us.”
In Singapore Grand Prix, It"s All Vettel
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