Singapore Grand Prix 2015 - Race Analysis: Vettel takes stunning win as Hamilton hits car troubles.

Round 13 of the Formula World Championship took place on the tight and twisty street circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore and it saw Sebastian Vettel take home his 42nd career win overtaking the great Ayrton Senna for third on the list of all time wins. Vettel won from the pole whilst leading every lap for the Scuderia Ferrari. The team has now achieved there goal of 3 wins in the 2015 season.

Race winner Sebastian Vettel goes through Turn 3

The race got off to a relatively clean start with the only start problem coming for Max Verstappen as he stalled off the grid and he had to be restarted in the pits, albeit a lap behind everyone else. The top 7 stayed unchanged off the start with most of the switches coming more in the mid field, The best starts came from Force India who found themselves in 9th and 10th after starting from 11th and 13th. The first lap saw Sebastian Vettel absolutely going 110% and gaining a three second advantages over Ricciardo in P2 as he came onto the start of lap 2.

There was no changes to the order as we neared the first pit stop windows on lap 11. The first overtake of the day came from Romain Grosjean as he overtook Fernando Alonso after performing the undercut. However the action began on lap 13 when Massa was coming out of the pits and Hulkenberg was just coming through Turns 1 and 2. As they both entered Turn 3, it appeared as Nico Hulkenberg didn't sight Massa and turned in on him. Hulkenbergs front left hit Massas sidepod and he lost control on the car and hit the wall, taking him out of the race and bringing out the safety car. Hulkenberg has been given a 3 place grid drop in Japan for the incident. Many people (including most of the leaders) used the safety car to pit for there first stops.

Massa and Hulkenberg collided bringing out the safety car on lap 13.

With the field all bunched up on the restart Sebastian Vettel choose not to use his aggressive strategy he used in the first stint and simply backed Ricciardo up and saved his tires. Ricciardo couldn't get close enough to pass him. The safety car worked well for both Mercedes as they jumped Kvyat who was in P4. This meant Hamilton was now in 4th with Rosberg just behind in 5th. Massa ended up retiring from the incident with Hulkenberg not long after the restart, after he began to have gear box problems.

With Sebastian Vettel still leading from Ricciardo then Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton (in 4th) still saw himself an opportunity to win the race. But it wasn't to be for the Brit because on lap 26 he reported a loss of power, it wasn't a full loss but he was 5 seconds a lap slower than everyone. After a few laps he couldn't find a solution and dropped to the back of the field. Hamilton eventually elected to retire to save his engine for the next race.

Lewis Hamilton retired from the race with an unclear electrical/pedal issue.

Another safety car was called out on lap 37 when one fan got a little lost and found himself walking down the side of the track. The fan was on the track for a good 20 seconds before jumping the fence and exiting the track. He has been arrested. The safety car came at the perfect time to pit for fresh rubber, and almost the whole field did.

On the second restart things got more twitchy as lapped Alexander Rossi found himself between Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen. We saw Carlos Sainz become another victim of a "gearbox ghost" as he mysteriously dropped into neutral on the restart.

A fan takes a walk on the track.

Later in the race Fernando Alonso retired from the race with gear box problems, whilst his team mate was getting racy with Pastor Maldonado which saw Jenson lose his front wing. Button ironically commented on the track invader after the race saying: "He was safer than some of the drivers".

Heading into the last laps the top 6 were sealed, but Sergio Perez was under pressure from Verstappen and Sainz for his 7th place. Toro Rosso asked Verstappen to let Sainz through as they thought he would have a better shot at Perez, to which Max simply replied: "No!". Verstappen couldn't catch Perez as he held onto 7th. Felipe Nasr did well to pressure Romain Grosjean into a mistake at Turn 7 which saw the Brazilian pick up his first point since Monaco.

The race lasted the full 61 laps and Sebastian Vettel crossed the line to take the chequred flag in style with Daniel Ricciardo just seconds behind him. It was a bigger gap to Raikkonen in third who claimed his second podium in the season.

The ending race order was:

1) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
2) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
3) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
4) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
5) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
6) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
7) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
8) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
9) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
10) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
11) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
12) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
13) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
14) Alexander Rossi - Manor-Ferrari
15) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
16) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda (DNF)
17) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda (DNF)
18) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes (DNF)
19) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes (DNF)
20) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes (DNF)

(Left to Right) Daniel Ricciardo (2nd), Ferrari technician, Sebastian Vettel (1st) and Kimi Raikkonen (3rd)

It wasn't the most exciting race, but it was one that saw many fans pleased as it wasn't a Mercedes fighting for the top spot. I was personally very pleased to see such a dominant performance from Sebastian Vettel and I would love to continue to see the Scuderia on the top step. Bring on Japan!

More to come on the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix!

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