Vettel Cruises to Singapore Win after High Attrition

Lewis Hamilton, Pastor Maldonado and Sebastian Vettel were the top three drivers in qualifying yesterday, but only one of those drivers finished the race. The Singapore Grand Prix has been won from pole 75% of the time historically before this race, and that was not true today. High mechanical attrition took Hamilton and Maldonado out of the race and allowed Vettel to take the victory. 

To be blunt the first half of the race was more of a parade than a car race. There was very little passing. It was only after Hamilton’s transmission stopped working to bring out the safety car at the halfway mark that things got interesting. There were some good battles in the second half of the race, especially the one between Alonso and Maldonado and the one between Massa and Senna. 

The start was clean with almost crashes or collisions. Vitaly Petrov lost his front wing in one of the early corners. Vettel was able to pass Maldonado nearly immediately and move into second. Button also got around Maldonado bringing him up to third. Felipe Massa came in on lap 2 to switch to the harder tire option due to a left rear puncture. On lap 4, Lotus engineers came on and told him that his telemetry system had failed. The car still functioned, but the engineers had not idea of what it was doing. 

Tires were a huge deal during the race. Mark Webber came in on lap 9 to opt for the harder tires. Alonso and Senna came in on lap 12. Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen, Paul di Resta, Nico Rosberg, Maldonado and both Lotuses came in on lap 13 and 14. 

On lap 10, Bruno Senna's engineer came on and told him that the car had a problem with first gear. 

On Lap 23, Lewis Hamilton's transmission stopped working. He was in the lead, and his stop brought out a yellow flag. This was a chance for the race to get interesting. It would bring Vettel to first, Button to second, Maldonado to third and Alonso to fourth. 

At lap, 30 with roughly half the race to go the top drivers were Vettel, Button, Paul di Resta, Rosberg and Romain Grosjean. Alonso had just pitted for fresh tires, which dropped him down the order to seventh. It actually created the first good battle of the race between Alonso in seventh and Maldonado in sixth. Alonso was pushing incredibly hard and forced Maldonado to drive for his life. 

While Maldonado and Alonso were battling on lap 33, Narain Karthikeyan understeered into the wall and brought out the safety car. That would condense the cars and erase Vettel’s then growing lead. While the safety car was out, nearly every driver pitted. 

During the safety car, Maldonado said that the car was having a hydraulic problem and that he would have to retire. 

The race resumed on lap 38. After the pit stops and Maldonado's retirement, the running order was Vettel, Button, Alonso, di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg. Webber was able to get around Hulkenberg early on to get him to fifth. 

On lap 39, Michael Schumacher slammed into the back on Jean-Eric Vergne to knock them both out. Vergne was clearly upset but patted Schumacher on the shoulder. It was the same corner where Schumacher hit Sergio Perez last year. That brought the safety car out of a second time. 

While the cars were behind the safety car, several cars pitted for fresh tires. Vitaly Petrov stalled the Caterham and had to be wheeled into the garage. The car was restarted but fell to 19th. 

The safety car pulled in again on lap 43. Massa was pushing hard to get by Senna. The two of them touched, and Massa got loose. He was able to save it though and made the pass. Calling it a miracle might be too lenient. The stewards said that they would investigate the incident, specifically whether Senna moved over on Massa. The stewards later said that there would be no further action. 

Up front on lap 45, Vettel was a 1.5 seconds ahead of Button, and Alonso was four seconds off of Button. 

Around lap 50, it was announced that this would be a time limit race. It would probably be either a 59-lap or 60-lap race instead of the scheduled 61-lap race. 

With seconds left in the race, Bruno Senna complained of loss of power and moments later had to pull off the track. He was 30 seconds away from finishing. Still, he was two laps ahead of Vitaly Petrov and therefore classified ahead of him. 

Vettel cruised to victory about 8 seconds ahead of Button. Alonso was third.

Fernando Alonso still leads the drivers' championship with 194 points. Vettel is in second with 165 points, and Raikkonen is in third with 149 points. Hamilton dropped to fourth place in the standings with 142 points. 

The constructors' championship positions stay the same.