Mercedes Lewis Hamilton stormed to an emphatic victory at the Singapore Grand Prix and took the lead in the World Championship for the first time since May after wresting it from title rival and team mate Nico Rosberg. It was his seventh of the season, second in Singapore, and enough to put him three points ahead of Nico Rosberg, who was retired on the 13th lap with gearshift electronics problems. “The whole steering wheel just wasn’t working so I didn’t have any hybrid power and the shifting, I would shift two gears at once all the time and I had no DRS,” he said in an interview. “The car just wasn’t working at all. And then there was no point to continue. It was a tough day really.”
“I had a dream this would happen last night, I just want to say huge thanks to my team,” Hamilton said in a podium interview. “I was so excited, I was looking for a clean weekend and I had it. We always strive to get both cars one-two that was our goal, so things still to work on.”
Sebastian Vettel took second after a battle with Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. He said, “It’s a circuit I like here, the atmosphere‘s great and it’s a tough event. We played a bit with strategy after we got undercut by Alonso, the safety car came at the worst time for us but we made the tyres work at the end which was tough. It was nice to get the cold champagne on the podium.”
Red Bulls Daniel Ricciardo exclaimed, “We expected the race pace to be a bit faster today. We weren’t quick enough in the first stint but in terms of points we still got a good handful to take away from here. Suzuka is in two weeks and that’s another track we can be optimistic for, so I’m looking forward to that. All in all it was a solid weekend.”
Fernando Alonso ended with a solid fourth place for Ferrari while Brazilian Felipe Massa took fifth for Williams. Jean-Eric Vergne was Toro Rosso’s star as he took sixth while Force India’s Sergio Perez was seventh passing Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who took eighth. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was ninth from McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, who was battling cramps and dehydration.
Hamilton’s victory thus takes him three points clear of Rosberg, 241 to 238, with Ricciardo third on 181. Alonso moves back to fourth on 133 and Vettel moves to fifth on 124. Mercedes have 479 points to Red Bull’s 305, while Williams stay ahead of Ferrari, 187 to 178. So let’s see what Suzuka has in kitty for all these stars.
