Perfect Vettel closes on title with dominant Singapore win

Sebastian Vettel edged to within one point of this year’s Formula One world championship with an inch perfect drive to victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.

The German was dominant in qualifying and quickly left his rivals for dead in the race, dropping second place man Jenson Button by the best part of a second a lap in the early stages.

Vettel’s lead was wiped out by a safety car, deployed following a spectacular collision between Michael Schumacher and Sergio Perez, but the Red Bull driver immediately began to ease away following its return to the pits. Though Button put on a late charge Vettel was never in serious danger of having to fight for the win and duly crossed the line to score his 11th triumph of the campaign.

Button was second, a repeat of his Monza result, and was once again in superb form aboard his McLaren. Though he could not catch Vettel at the conclusion he made a better fist of it than any of his rivals and now finds himself second in the standings.

The second Red Bull of Mark Webber completed the podium in a race that he never got to grips with. Yet another bad start dropped him down the order and from there he fought a losing battle to reclaim P2. Fourth went to Fernando Alonso, a disappointing result for the Ferrari driver, who has twice won on the Singapore streets.

Lewis Hamilton completed the top five after another accident-hit race. The Brit touched the rear of Felipe Massa's car whilst trying to pass the Ferrari, puncturing Massa’s tyre and breaking his own front-wing. After a trip to the pits for repairs Hamilton was hit with a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable incident but subsequently fought back to take P5.

Brit Paul di Resta was sixth for Force India following a standout drive, with Nico Rosberg seventh in the Mercedes. Adrian Sutil was eighth in the second Force India car ahead of the recovering Massa and Mexican rookie Perez, who suffered surprisingly little damage in his collision with Schumacher.

Vettel is now all but guaranteed to seal the title in Japan with the only result that could prevent it a Button victory with the Red Bull not making the top ten - and even that would merely postpone his celebrations by seven days.

Far more engaging is the battle for second, with Button a single point ahead of Alonso and Webber just two behind the Spaniard. Hamilton meanwhile now sits 17 in arrears of Button and faces the prospect of being beaten by a team-mate over the course of a season for the first time in his F1 career.

For all the latest F1 news watch Inside GP on Motors TV


James Weeks