Singapore: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel survived an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix to reignite his world title defence with a thrilling victory on Sunday.
After two safety car periods, crashes and the shock retirement of title-challenger Lewis Hamilton, the defending champion finished in front of McLaren’s Jenson Button for only his second win of the season.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso was third, claiming his eighth podium of the season in the dramatic night race around the narrow, demanding street circuit.
Force India’s Paul di Resta took an impressive fourth and Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was fifth, ahead of Lotus’s former world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber rounded out the top 10 in a race that did not even reach the 61 allotted laps after hitting its two-hour time-limit, meaning it was halted after 59.
“To get a good start and maintain position and then just at the end to push a Ferrari who’s pushing for the championship is brilliant for us,” di Resta said.
Force India’s near rivals, Williams and Sauber, failed to score any points, making the result an even better one for the Indian team.
With the win, Vettel climbs to second in the standings behind Alonso, who has a reduced lead of 29 points. Raikkonen lies third and the unlucky Hamilton drops to fourth.
“This has been one of toughest races of the year, to be honest,” said Vettel, last year’s winner in Singapore. “There are so many bumps, there’s no room for mistakes and it just seems to go on forever… I’m just incredibly happy.”
Hamilton made a smooth start from pole accompanied by Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, but a misjudgment on the first corner cost the Venezuelan two places as Vettel and Button sailed through.
Several cars ran wide on the first two corners and Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov lost some of his front wing, but an investigation found no cause for punishment.
Ferrari’s Massa was the big loser in the early jostling as he dropped to the back after pitting with a puncture.
Red Bull driver Webber came in for soft tyres on lap nine, setting a trend followed by the leading drivers. Meanwhile his team mate Vettel overcame a scare at turn 10, the notorious “Singapore Sling”.
Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 12 but was soon back in front, ahead of Vettel. But disaster struck on lap 23 when gearbox failure ended his race.
“I’m OK now,” said Hamilton after the race. “It was gutting when the car stopped, I was cruising. I was managing the gap and could have pushed more, I had the pace.”
Vettel was now in the lead, but HRT’s Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan added a fresh twist when he ploughed into a barrier and stopped on the track, prompting the safety car.
Button nearly collided with Vettel before the safety car left the track – and straight after the resumption Schumacher ploughed dramatically into the back of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
Despite Schumacher’s car briefly becoming airborne, both drivers were unharmed.
Massa made contact with Bruno Senna as he barged past his countryman and only just retained control of his car in his move up to ninth.
Vettel took the last few laps easy, bringing calm to a chaotic race. “We are in the hunt and I’m looking forward to the next race,” he said, bullishly. (AFP)