MARINA BAY MAGIC WITH SECOND AND THIRD

September 22, 2014 by Infiniti

SINGAPORE – Sebastian Vettel scored his best result of the season so far with second place at the Singapore Grand Prix, while Daniel Ricciardo took his seventh podium finish to the season with third place.

The race was won by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. Teammate Nico Rosberg was forced to retire from the race after 13 laps. The result means Hamilton takes over at the top of the Drivers' standings, with the English now ahead by three points.

Rosberg's problems started before the race when he was forced to make a start from the pitlane when an electrical problem left him unable to get away from the grid on the formation lap.

At the start, pole position man Hamilton got away cleanly in the lead, but behind him positions were changing hands. Fernando Alonso jumped from fifth on the grid to second, though it seemed that the Ferrari man had run beyond the track limits in doing so.

Behind him Seb had passed Daniel, who hadn't made the perfect start. Alonso let Vettel by following the start but didn't extend the favor to Dan who stayed in fourth place.

At the back Rosberg was running but his lap times were painfully slow, up to three seconds adrift of the front runners. The reasons quickly became clear. The only items functioning on his steering wheel were the gearshifters, and even they were problematic, skipping gears on upshifts.

In the first round of stops, Rosberg was told he would have to stall in his pit box and the team would restart him and hope he could engage a gear. His car wouldn't comply however, and he retired from the race.

At the front, Hamilton spent the first stint and the opening part of the second phase in comfortable control. However, at half distance the complexion of the race changed. Force India's Sergio Perez tangled with the Sauber of Adrian Sutil, and on lap 31 the front wing of the Mexican's car collapsed, going under the car. It shattered and sprayed debris across the track.

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The safety car was deployed, and strategies across the order began to change. Hamilton elected to stay out, as did Sebastian and Daniel. The Mercedes man was on option supersofts and would need to use prime soft rubber in his final stint, while the Red Bulls were on primes and planned to switch to the options for a fast final stint.

Elsewhere, fourth placed Alonso pitted for prime soft tires, however, planning to run to the end of the race. Behind him in fifth and sixth, Williams' Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were told to run their existing tires to the end of the race.

With such a strategy being risked elsewhere, Sebastian was told to change plans and run his soft tires until the end of the race, with Daniel on the same plan.

Hamilton ahead would need to make up a huge chunk of time on track to be able to pit for his mandatory soft tires and retain the lead. While the Mercedes driver eked out a big lead on the quicker supersofts, it was not enough for him to pit and retake the lead.

He emerged on track between new leader Seb and Daniel. Sebastian tried to defend for two laps, but with his ageing tires making life difficult, he could not prevent Hamilton getting past.

Thereafter, the task was to keep Alonso, on new tires, at bay, and both Red Bull drivers got the job done in fine style, crossing the line to take 33 well deserved championship points for the team.

'It's a circuit I like; the atmosphere's great and it's a tough event,' said Seb of his fifth podium finish from seven races in Singapore. 'I had a good start and got past Daniel and had a decent race. 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 tires work at the end which was tough. There was no point fighting Lewis at the end. He was on fresh tires and I had to manage mine to the end as they were pretty old by then; that was the focus. It was nice to get the cold champagne on the podium.'

Daniel, meanwhile, said he was pleased with his result, despite a number of problems during the race.

'We were really close to the Mercedes in qualifying, and we expected the race pace to be a bit faster today to be honest,' he said. 'We weren't quick enough in the first stint, and we had a few other issues going on with brakes and some power issues that were coming and going, but in terms of points we still got a good handful to take away from here. It actually feels a bit like a home race here. Singapore to Perth is like Melbourne to Perth, so for West Australians it's not too far. 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.'

Team principal Christian Horner hailed the 'incredible performance' of both drivers on the soft tire at the end of the race.

'The pace car came out and we were in a horrible situation of having to decide if the tire could make it to the end, but the drivers did an incredible job today, and got the cars to the finish on what must have been minimal rubber by the end,' he said. 'So, second and third is a great team performance, especially with the double pit stop during the race which was done in an exceptional time.'

Behind Sebastian and Daniel, Alonso finished fourth. Massa was fifth, ahead Jean-Eric Vergne who drove a great race for Toro Rosso, rising from eleventh to sixth in the last nine laps, passing three cars in the final few laps.

Sergio Perez was seventh for Force India, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. The final point went to McLaren's Kevin Magnussen.