Lewis Hamilton unexpectedly vaulted into the lead of the World Championship for just the second time in the compelling 2014 season with a hard-earned victory in a dramatic night-time Singapore GP after the lights went out early on Nico Rosberg’s race.
The Briton’s path to his seventh win of the year – and a crucial three-point title lead – had appeared to be cleared by the demise of his team-mate and title rival as the otherwise all-conquering Mercedes team’s lingering Achilles’ heel – unreliability – intervened on the formation lap as what was later confirmed as a steering loom failure meant Rosberg's W05 didn’t even get away from the grid.
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Rolled away from the front-row and to the end of the pitlane for the race start, Rosberg was able to get going at the back of the field but not to any meaningful extend as a litany of electronically-related glitches rendered the fastest car in the field toothless. The hitherto championship leader was then put out of his increasing misery under the lights on lap 15 when his car was unable to get going again after he had to shut it down for the team to even complete a pitstop.
With the reliability pendulum swinging once again to dramatic effect between the title contenders, Hamilton appeared on course to inflict maximum damage on Rosberg as he pulled away from pole at the front of the field from first Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso.
However, not for the first time in Singapore’s F1 history, the intervention of a mid-race Safety Car threw sudden unexpected drama into proceedings and made Hamilton’s route to that crucial victory rather more complicated.
Prior to the race ‘reset’ Hamilton had held a growing advantage over Alonso – the Ferrari driver having undercut Vettel and switched to the supersoft tyres at the second stops – but was locked into a three-stop strategy owing to the fact he had yet to switch to the soft tyres.
With Alonso ducking out of second during the Safety Car to make his own mandatory switch to the yellow-marked tyres, and the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, having already used both tyres, deciding to run mammoth 30-lap-plus stints to the end, Hamilton had to build up a massive lead over his pursuers in order to not lose too much ground when he eventually pitted.
The calls to Hamilton by his race engineer of ‘Hammertime’ over the radio when the Briton needs to push before a pitstop have become famous this year, but as Sky F1’s Martin Brundle remarked in commentary, the Briton needed something more akin to “Sledgehammertime’ as he attempted to build a pit-stop advantage over Vettel.
What followed was memorable as Hamilton, three seconds quicker than the lead Red Bull on the first restart lap alone, lapped consistently up to two seconds a lap faster to open up a 26-second lead in the space of a 15-lap blitz.
And while it wasn’t quite enough to pit and re-emerge on the track ahead of Vettel, such was his combination of car and tyre advantage that Hamilton spent just one lap in second place before breezing past the ailing Red Bull into Turn Seven.
Then as if to confirm the pace advantage he had held for the entire race, Hamilton took the chequered flag by a commanding 13-second margin to regain the championship lead for the first time since May
Vettel still came home second for the German’s best result of his largely forgettable title defence, holding off team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and Alonso after a mammoth 34-lap closing stint on the soft tyres.
Felipe Massa claimed what turned out to be a rather lonely fifth for Williams but team-mate Valtteri Bottas slipped from sixth to out of the points in 11th over a tumultuous series of final laps as the Finn’s FW36 completing ran out of grip.
In a thrilling closing exchange, Jean-Eric Vergne, already dropped by Toro Rosso for 2015, came through to claim a season-best sixth – despite a five-second time penalty – ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez and the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
With Jenson Button a late mechanical retirement for McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the points scorers – a combination of results which lifts Force India back above their Woking rivals in the championship.
What had looked likely to be a tense race-long duel between the Mercedes title rivals from the front-row of the grid after the closest of pole duels was scuppered by the recurrence of the otherwise all-conquering team’s lingering Achilles’ heel – unreliability – as a control electronics failure meant Rosberg's W05 didn’t even get away from the grid on the formation lap.
Rolled off the grid and to the end of the pitlane for the race start, Rosberg was able to get going at the back of the field but not to any meaningful extend as a litany of electronically-related glitches rendered the fastest car in the field toothless. The hitherto championship leader was then put out of his increasing misery under the lights on lap 15 when his car was unable to get going again after he had to shut it down in the team’s pitbox.
With the reliability pendulum swinging once again between the title contenders, the stage therefore appeared set for Hamilton, who had easily converted his pole into the race lead from Rosberg’s demise, to waltz away to victory and a three-point championship lead.
However, not for the first time in the Singapore GP’s history, the intervention of a mid-race Safety Car threw sudden unexpected drama into proceedings and made Hamilton’s route to that crucial victory rather more complicated.
With his lead cancelled out, and having not yet made the mandatory switch to the soft tyres, Hamilton was forced to unleash all his trademark speed at the restart and open up enough of an advantage over the Red Bull-led chasing pack, who were all running to the end of the race.
He duly opened up a 26-second lead over Vettel, and although he returned to the track behind the World Champion after his eventual final stop, his tyre advantage was such that he made easy meat of the German just one lap later.
Vettel hung on, however, to finish second for his best result of the year ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso.
How the championship battle stands with five races to go
1. Lewis Hamilton - 241 points.
2. Nico Rosberg - 238 points.
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 181 points.
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