2011 Formula 1 : Vettel wins at Singapore

2011 F1 - Singapore Grand Prix Winner : Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7

SINGAPORE : September 15, 2011 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) dominated Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix but failed to secure back-to-back world titles in a dramatic race.



Despite his 19th F1 victory, he remained just one point shy of becoming Formula One's youngest-ever double world champion, depending on Jenson Button's results over the remaining races. The McLaren driver finished second, his fourth consecutive podium position, and pressed Vettel hard over the closing stages of the race, crossing the line just 1.7 seconds behind.

Mark Webber was a distant third followed by Fernando Alonso (+55.4) and Lewis Hamilton (+67.7), the only others to finish on the lead lap.

Vettel has amassed 309 championship points and can now only be caught by Button who has 185 points. Alonso (184) and Webber (182) are close behind but no longer in contention for the title.

Red Bull leads the Constructors' Championship with 491 points, followed by McLaren (353) and Ferrari (268).

As the race started, Vettel had an untroubled run from pole to the first corner, but his team mate Mark Webber who started alongside Vettel was swamped from behind by the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Button got past into second, but Hamilton got squeezed and had to back off, dropping to eighth.

At the end of the first lap, Vettel was leading from Button, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Webber, Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Hamilton, Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) and his team mate Paul di Resta.

On lap 4 Hamilton got past Schumacher into seventh and quickly caught Rosberg and passed him a lap later.

Vettel had started from pole for the 11th time this season and with a clear track ahead of him set a fastest lap of 1'53.910 on lap 5, building an eight-second cushion over Button.

Despite being a night race, conditions were very hot at this track which straddles the Equator with the track surface at 33°C and the air at 31°C. The humidity level was 62% with a light breeze and no rain predicted.

By lap 7, Webber had closed to within one second of Alonso, allowing him to start using his DRS to get closer, but he also had Massa just one second behind him and would have to defend as well as attack. Hamilton also moved closer to the three cars ahead and was 1.4 sec behind Massa, reducing that to 0.7 sec on the next lap.

Rosberg was the first to pit for new tyres on lap 9, choosing a three-stop strategy.

Webber made a determined pass on Alonso for third on lap 10 and the Spaniard stopped for tyres.

Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) retired on lap 11 as Massa and Hamilton both pitted for tyres line astern and left nose-to-tail in the same sequence. Hamilton made a run on Massa as they returned to racing speed, but there was contact between the two cars, Hamilton losing part of his front wing and Massa getting a punctured right rear tyre, so Massa returned to the pits again on the next lap while Hamilton remained out, losing about two seconds a lap. He pitted on lap 14 for new tyres and a new front wing. The incident had dropped Hamilton to 16th and Massa to 20th.

Race leader Vettel pitted on lap 15 and was followed in by second-placed Button, ten seconds behind. Meanwhile, race stewards gave Hamilton a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Massa, which he took on lap 16, rejoining in 19th place

There were no problems for Vettel, who set a new fastest lap of 1'53.269 on lap 16 stretching his lead over Button to 11.6 seconds.

Hamilton was flying after his earlier indiscretion, matching second-placed Button's lap times, and passing cars on his way back towards a points-scoring position. He got past Kobayashi for 14th on lap 21 with Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 0.3 sec ahead and Massa two seconds further up the road.

Vettel went faster still, setting a 1'53.113 on lap 21 and increasing his lead to 20 seconds as Hamilton passed Buemi and took aim at the back of Massa's Ferrari once more. Alonso's Ferrari was battling with rapid rear tyre wear and Webber closed up to the third-placed Spaniard who pitted for fresh tyres.

Massa was also battling a Ferrari with poor rear grip and Hamilton speared past him and took up an attacking position behind another Brazilian, Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) in 11th place, who he took on the next lap.

Rosberg and Perez began a spirited battle for seventh place, which Rosberg took, and Schumacher, who was close behind, took advantage of the situation to get close to Perez, but he ran into the back of the Mexican, launching his Mercedes into the air and on into the tyre wall at Turn 8, terminating his race. The accident led to the deployment of the safety car and the field bunched up again behind race leader Vettel.

Afterwards, Schumacher said: "In the moment I was just about to go on the inside he lifted the throttle. I did not expect him to slow so early."

Many drivers took the opportunity of pitting for fresh tyres, including Hamilton who chose the super-soft option.

The safety car withdrew on lap 32 and Vettel dashed away from the pack. Webber was once again right behind Alonso and as the traffic bunched up into Turn 10, the Australian caught the Spaniard napping and took third place.

Hamilton was up to eighth on lap 35 and arguing with Sutil over seventh place as the pair threaded their way through slower traffic.

Vettel set a 1'50.992 on lap 36 of 61 as Hamilton got past Sutil into seventh place and targetted Rosberg a second-and-a-half further up the road, but he caught and passed the German within just one lap, with Di Resta next, less than a second ahead. He caught and passed the Scot and took fifth place, 13 seconds behind Alonso.

On lap 39, Kobayashi was given a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags.

On lap 40, Hamilton was the fastest driver on the track, lapping 0.3 sec a lap faster than the race leader and catching Alonso at nearly a second a lap.

On lap 45, Hamilton's pace slowed and he was lapping slower than Alonso 12 seconds ahead of him. With 14 laps left, he probably had no option but to pit again for the harder option tyres, though he had 15 seconds in hand over Di Resta.

With 13 laps remaining, third-placed Webber made a final stop for fresh tyres, rejoining in sixth behind Hamilton.

Button pitted next opting for super-softs and returning in second behind Alonso as Hamilton ran out of traction and had to yield fourth place to Webber. Hamilton pitted on lap 48, his fifth visit to the pit lane, and rejoined down in ninth place.

Race leader Vettel pitted n lap 49 and avoided an accident by millimetres as Lotus released a car into his path as he was leaving the pit.

With fresh tyres, Hamilton caught and passed Perez and then Sutil to go seventh with nine laps remaining and three cars within eight seconds ahead of him. Rosberg tried to possess the racing line, but with worn tyres he had not enough traction out of the corners and Hamilton drove past him and set off after fifth-placed Di Resta four seconds ahead and 10 seconds behind Alonso.

Di Resta was despatched on lap 53 but Alonso would prove harder to catch - 12 seconds ahead with seven laps remaining.

On lap 54, Button set a new fastest lap of the race - 1'48.454 - reducing race leader Vettel's lead to nine seconds.

Button was catching Vettel at a second a lap, and McLaren team mate Hamilton was catching Alonso at two seconds a lap, setting the stage for a showdown finish.

With five laps left, Vettel's lead was down to seven seconds as Button was mindful of a similar situation in Canada where he psyched Vettel into an error that allowed him to get past and win.

Four laps to go, and Vettel was approaching slower traffic as Button began to get sight of his quarry - just 3.7 seconds ahead. But Button lost two seconds when he had to get through the same back-markers, and Vettel survived the attack.

Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) ran off the track into the Armco barriers on the penultimate lap.

Vettel will have to wait at least two weeks for the Japanese GP at Suzuka on 9 October to secure the championship.

2011 Formula 1 : SINGAPORE Gran Prix - Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	61	Winner	1	25
2	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	61	+1.7 secs	3	18
3	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	61	+29.2 secs	2	15
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	61	+55.4 secs	5	12
5	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	61	+67.7 secs	4	10
6	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	61	+ secs	10	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	60	+1 Lap	7	6
8	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	60	+1 Lap	9	4
9	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	6	2
10	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	11	1
11	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	60	+1 Lap	13
12	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	14
13	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	60	+1 Lap	12
14	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	59	+2 Laps	17
15	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	59	+2 Laps	15
16	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	59	+2 Laps	19
17	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	59	+2 Laps	18
18	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	59	+2 Laps	22
19	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	57	+4 Laps	23
20	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	57	+4 Laps	24
21	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	56	Accident	16
Ret	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	47	+14 Laps	20
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	28	Accident	8
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	9	+52 Laps	21

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers' Championship Standing

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	309
2	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	185
3	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	184
4	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	182
5	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	168
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	84
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	62
8	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	52
9	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	34
10	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	34
11	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	28
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	27
13	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	20
14	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	16
15	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	13
16	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	9
17	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	4
18	Bruno Senna	Brazilian	Renault	2
19	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	1
20	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	Sauber-Ferrari	0
21	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
25	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
26	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
27	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	HRT-Cosworth	0
28	Karun Chandhok	Indian	Lotus-Renault	0

2011 Formula 1 : Teams' Championship Standing

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	491
2	McLaren-Mercedes	353
3	Ferrari	268
4	Mercedes	114
5	Renault	70
6	Force India-Mercedes	48
7	Sauber-Ferrari	36
8	STR-Ferrari	29
9	Williams-Cosworth	5
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1, SUPERSPORT, ZA, CRASH.NET]