Marina Bay, 23 September

In some ways, the fourteenth round of the World Championship went according to plan: yesterday the Scuderia Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa said they were aiming for the podium and points respectively and that’s what happened with the Spaniard third and the Brazilian eighth. A tough race was expected and so it proved, with night time doing little to diminish the heat and humidity and, also as expected, the Safety Car played its part. While Fernando had some luck with Hamilton retirning, Felipe did it the hard way from the back of the pack.

The race was won by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull and he was flanked on the podium by Jenson Button for McLaren in second spot, as well as Fernando. Today’s winner now takes his turn as the Spaniard’s closest rival in the Drivers’ championship and the gap is down from 37 to 29 points. In the Constructors’, the Scuderia has inched a bit closer to second placed McLaren, but the Red Bull is now 53 points clear of the Red Prancing Horse.


After a minute’s silence on the grid for Professor Sid Watkins, the doctor who did so much for safety in motor sport and who died last week aged 84, it was time for business for the next two hours, under the floodlights at Marina Bay.

Fernando obviously started on the Supersoft Pirelli as he qualified in the top ten and Felipe had made the same choice for the opening stint of the race. While Fernando maintained his fifth place, Felipe got caught up in a melee and dropped to 21st. Hamilton led from pole, while Vettel and Button both got past Maldonaldo. The Brazilian limped into the pits at the end of lap 1 with a left rear puncture, after which he rejoined at the back of the field. Fernando did not get the best of starts and had to reclaim his place off Di Resta in the Force India at the start and by the end of lap 2, he was already 7 seconds behind leader Hamilton. At the front, Hamilton and Vettel were separated by 1.4s, but then there was a gap of almost four seconds to third placed Button.

Lap 5 saw Felipe set the fastest lap time so far, as the Brazilian fought to get back in the race. The first run of pit stops was initiated by Mark Webber in the Red Bull, coming in on lap 8 and fitting the Soft tyres, but coming out in 20th place. Team-mate Vettel came in two laps later, rejoining 12th, promoting Fernando to fourth. Fernando made his stop on lap 11, fitting the Soft compound Pirellis, which put him back out in P12. The leader Hamilton was complaining of a problem with his right rear and pitted on lap 12, which put Button in the other McLaren in the lead. Di Resta and Rosberg were other top ten runners who changed tyres at this time. Lap 13 saw Maldonaldo bring the Williams in from second spot, while Raikkonen pitted the Lotus from ninth. Button pitted his McLaren from the lead on lap 14, followed in by Grosjean in the other Lotus. Fernando was now eighth, right on the gearbox of Perez’s Sauber and going into Turn 14, the Ferrari man got past. At this stage, Hulkenberg and Perez were the only two front runners not to have stopped for fresh rubber and the next few laps would hold the key to how the two stoppers and three stoppers were going to fare against one another.

Lap 15 and the order was Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Maldonaldo, Hulkenberg, Fernando now sixth, Perez, Di Resta, Webber and Rosberg completing the top ten. Felipe was now twentieth. It didn’t take long for the Spanish Ferrari man to get past the German Force India driver, but there was a big 5.2 second gap to fourth placed Maldonaldo. Felipe made his second pit stop on lap 19. Lap 20 and Fernando had got to within 4 seconds of the Venezuelan Williams driver and the Ferrari man was lapping faster than the race leader, gradually reeling in the Williams and was only 11 seconds off first placed Hamilton, as Felipe set another fastest race lap on lap 21. The Brazilian was flying! Hamilton had looked dominant until he coasted to a halt on lap 22 with no gears, so that the top three now read, Vettel, Button and Maldonaldo, with Fernando just off the virtual podium.

Webber resumed the run of pit stops, fitting the Supersoft on lap 28. Next lap and Maldonaldo and Fernando pitted nose to tail and came out in the same order, but sixth and seventh, as Di Resta, Rosberg and Grosjean all moved ahead of the battling duo and, as the race reached half distance, it looked as though it might hit its two hour legal limit before all 61 laps were completed, even if the Safety Car had not been needed so far. As they ran into heavy traffic, the Ferrari man closed right up to the Williams. Lap 33 and Fernando pulled alongside Maldonaldo a couple of times, but could not squeeze past.

It was at this point that Karthikeyan hit the wall bringing out the Safety Car, Vettel, Button and Di Resta all came in to pit, followed by Rosberg, Grosjean, Maldonaldo, with Fernando now moving up to third having pitted before the SC. Maldonaldo had to retire in the garage. Massa also came in. The Safety Car let the field go at the start of lap 38 and Button almost drove into the back of race leader Vettel and a couple of laps later the Safety Car came out again, as Schumacher piled his Mercedes into the back of eighth placed Vergne in the Toro Rosso, causing both cars to retire. Felipe was working his way up the field with some consistently quick laps and impressive passing moves. The one on Bruno Senna stands out, as Felipe seemed to bounce his F2012 off the wall and then the Williams, arriving at Turn 13 ahead of his fellow countryman, even if the Ferrari was completely sideways!

From then on the order did not change significantly and, as expected with two appearances from the Safety Car, the two hour limit meant that Sebastian Vettel was shown the chequered flag after 59 of the planned 61 laps. In between Fernando on the podium and Felipe in eighth, came Di Resta fourth for Force India, then Rosberg (Mercedes) and Raikkonen and Grosjean for Lotus. Behind the Brazilian the last two points places were filled by Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) and Webber (Red Bull.)