Sebastian
Vettel has won for the second time in 2012, taking the chequered flag
in Singapore on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton, who led from the start,
retired with a broken gearbox on the 23rd lap. This left Jenson
Button and Fernando Alonso to complete the podium as Paul di Resta
registered his best ever F1 result in fourth.
Heading
into the fifth Formula 1 night race, the entire community took time
to remember Professor Sid Watkins with one minute of silence before
the race.
On-track, Hamilton’s target from pole position was to
stay ahead of Pastor Maldonado on the run to the first corner.
Championship leader Alonso started in fifth place as Bruno Senna was
demoted to 22nd.
It
was a clean start, despite Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg being forced
across the Sheares run-off area following a four-abreast car duel on
the run to the first corner. Further back, Vitaly Petrov tapped
team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and was forced to pit for a new front
wing. Also in early was Felipe Massa, but with the help of two Safety
Cars the Brazilian was able to storm back through the field to an
eventual eighth place.
Almost
two fifths of the way through the infamously long race, Hamilton led
Vettel by two seconds, with Button third after Maldonado had dropped
to fourth at the second corner. Vettel had already begun to spot oil
from Hamilton’s car and, sure enough, the McLaren’s gearbox
failed under braking for Turn 1. As Hamilton parked at Turn 5 but
remained remarkably calm back in the garage, he held the unenviable
statistic of – having won races this year in Canada, Hungary and
Italy – always retiring from the following Grand Prix.
The
race, which became the first dry F1 event to go to the time limit
since the 1991 season-opener in Phoenix, was broken up by two Safety
Car periods.The first came on Lap 33 after Narain Karthikeyan wiped
off his HRT’s right-front wheel at Turn 18. The second was
immediately after the restart, as Michael Schumacher was unable to
stop and flew over the back of Jean-Éric Vergne at Turn 14. The
crash removed the French Toro Rosso driver from a points-paying
position, but team-mate Daniel Ricciardo still finished ninth. It was
during these Safety Car periods that a number of pit-stops took
place.
A
big loser from the Safety Cars was Maldonado, who had been pushing on
for a third pit-stop when he was forced to come in early. This proved
to have no major bearing on the race, as he pulled into the pit lane
with a hydraulics problem. Williams’ miserable night was compounded
by a retirement for Senna on the last lap, promoting Timo Glock into
12th position which allows Marussia to leapfrog Caterham for a top
ten Constructors’ Championship finish.
The
midfield became explosive; not only did Massa narrowly avoid the wall
when passing a wayward Senna, but Webber was unable to overhaul
fellow Australian Ricciardo. Incidentally, the Red Bull driver
remains under investigation for a pass on Kamui Kobayashi. Further
back, both Saubers broke their front wings and – like Kamui
Kobayashi - Nico Hülkenberg had to make a late-race pit-stop, for a
rear puncture.
As
di Resta picked up his best ever F1 finish, just as he had done in
Marina Bay 12 months ago, Nico Rosberg made the top five in the
sole-finishing Mercedes. Kimi Räikkönen’s weekend of damage
limitation ended in sixth place as Lotus instructed Romain Grosjean
to let the Finn past. Massa, Ricciardo and Webber rounded out the
points positions.
Vettel’s
victory is his second in succession in Singapore but first since the
Bahrain Grand Prix in April. He now equals Nélson Piquet for 23
career victories, moving into the all-time top ten. Racking up his
81st podium finish, Alonso moves ahead of Ayrton Senna for third
place overall; he now leads the championship from Vettel by 29
points. For constructors’ honours, Red Bull has extended its
advantage over McLaren to a margin of 37.
Race results - 2012 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 2:00:26.144 |
| 2. | Jenson Button | McLaren | +8.959 |
| 3. | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | +15.227 |
| 4. | Paul di Resta | Force India | +19.063 |
| 5. | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | +34.784 |
| 6. | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus | +35.759 |
| 7. | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | +36.698 |
| 8. | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | +42.829 |
| 9. | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +45.820 |
| 10. | Sergio Perez | Sauber | +50.619 |
| 11. | Mark Webber | Red Bull | +1:07.175 |
| 12. | Timo Glock | Marussia | +1:31.918 |
| 13. | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | +1:37.141 |
| 14. | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India | +1:39.413 |
| 15. | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | +1:47.967 |
| 16. | Charles Pic | Marussia | +2:12.925 |
| 17. | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | +1 Lap |
| 18. | Bruno Senna | Williams | +2 Laps |
| 19. | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | +2 Laps |
| Did not finish | |||
| 20. | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | +21 Laps |
| 21. | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | +21 Laps |
| 22. | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | +23 Laps |
| 23. | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | +29 Laps |
| 24. | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | +37 Laps |
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