As he did earlier in the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix, once Sebastian Vettel can get a lead against the Mercedes cars that have been dominant in Formula One this year, he can generally either hold it or make life extremely difficult for them. In this case it was the former as the four-time world champion Vettel started in pole position and piloted his Ferrari around the track in first place from start to finish while the Mercedes of defending champion Lewis Hamilton had to withdraw late in the race and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was never a factor as he finished in fourth. Vettel fended off a meek challenge from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in second and his Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, claimed the third and final podium position on the Marina Bay circuit at the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix.
For Vettel, the race was humdrum from the start as he flew off the line in Lap One and quickly built as much as a six-second lead over Ricciardo before settling down into a comfortable rhythm and maintaining a 2-3 second lead over Ricciardo for the majority of the race. Ricciardo never mounted much of a threat to Vettel as two incidents that brought out the safety car both merged coincidentally with upcoming planned pit stops for both drivers, thus ensuring that they remained in the same order. One of the incidents was a strange one, involving a man – presumably a fan – who had somehow wandered onto the track on Lap 36. Other than that minor drama, the only other race drama was muted when Hamilton was never able to make any move on the podium finishers as his Mercedes experienced a power reduction problem midway through the race. After remaining on the course while his pit attempted to figure out the problem, Hamilton and Mercedes finally bailed and retired the car on Lap 33.
That left only Rosberg to try and salvage a podium position for the team but he was never able to surmount a challenge to Raikkonen and had to settle for a mere 12-point gain on Hamilton in the season standings while giving up 13 points to the hard-charging Vettel in third.
Meanwhile, American Alexander Rossi, started his first Formula One race ever – and the first for an American in eight years – took full advantage of the numerous retirements in the race and finished a respectable 14th for the underpowered Manor/Marussia team.
With the results, Hamilton maintains his overall lead in the 2015 Formula One points standings with 252 points to Rosberg’s 211 points and Vettel closing in third with 203 points.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka at 5 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on September 27, 2015.
2015 Singapore Grand Prix Results/Marina Bay Street Circuit – 61 laps – 192 miles
1 Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari 25 2:01:22.118 152.672
2 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull 18 +1.478 Sec 152.641
3 Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari 15 +17.154 Sec 152.313
4 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes 12 +24.720 Sec 152.156
5 Valtteri Bottas – Williams 10 +34.204 Sec 151.958
6 Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull 8 +35.508 Sec 151.931
7 Sergio Perez – Force India 6 +50.836 Sec 151.614
8 Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso 4 +51.450 Sec 151.601
9 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Toro Rosso 2 +52.860 Sec 151.572
10 Felipe Nasr – Sauber 1 +1:30.045 Sec 150.807
11 Marcus Ericsson – Sauber 0 +1:37.507 Sec 150.655
12 Pastor Maldonado – Lotus 0 +1:37.718 Sec 150.651
13 Romain Grosjean – Lotus 0 – 150.226
14 Alexander Rossi – Marussia 0 – 147.284
15 Will Stevens – Marussia 0 – 146.986
16 Jenson Button – McLaren 0 – 148.576
17 Fernando Alonso – McLaren 0 – 149.215
18 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes 0 – 146.9
19 Felipe Massa – Williams 0 – 145.592
20 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India 0 – 155.558