Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Grand Prix with race victory for Mercedes. Rosberg resisted the late pressure from Daniel Ricciardo to score his eighth win this season.
By winning the Singapore Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver has retaken the championship lead from rival and team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg now has an eight-point advantage with six races left this season.
Despite both Mercedes drivers being warned about brake management from the early laps, Rosberg controlled most of the Singapore Grand Prix.
After a safety car for a startline crash and a hair-raising moment as a marshal had to run off the track with the leaders approaching at the restart, Rosberg established a comfortable gap over Ricciardo and Hamilton.
Mercedes’ choice of softs for its second stint, when Ricciardo stayed on super-softs, left Hamilton moaning at his team over the radio.
Hamilton then found himself under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen’s super-soft compound Ferrari, which got past just after half-distance after a lock-up from the Mercedes.
The second round of pit-stops followed soon after, with the gap between Rosberg and Hamilton in fourth out to 18.9 seconds.
Mercedes then switched Hamilton to “plan B”, and he charged up behind Raikkonen and then made an unexpected third pit-stop for a set of ultra-softs with 16 laps to the flag.
Ferrari was left in two minds on whether to react, and though it hauled Raikkonen in, a superb lap from Hamilton allowed him to pull off the undercut and reclaim third. He then held off Raikkonen to the finish.
Red Bull Racing covered off both those drivers by bringing in Ricciardo for new super-softs, while Mercedes left Rosberg out on his softs.
The honey badger started hunting down Rosberg, a 24 seconds gap becoming 5 seconds within seven laps.
But some traffic, fading tyres and Mercedes giving Rosberg the green light to push his brakes harder halted Ricciardo’s charge and he ran out of time to pass.
The dramatic finish matched the start, when Max Verstappen’s slow getaway from fourth triggered mayhem.
Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg tangled as they tried to dodge around the Red Bull, sending Hulkenberg spinning into the pitwall and triggering the safety car.
That proved to be the only caution period, but Sebastian Vettel did not need too much help to make it through the field from the back of the grid.
Rapid overtaking in the midfield and a long first stint on softs set up his determined drive to a fifth place finish.
Verstappen ended up sixth via a late move on Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, having had a big battle with his Red Bull predecessor Daniil Kvyat along the way.
Sergio Perez’s eighth nudged Force India a point ahead of Williams in their battle for fourth in the constructors’ championship as the latter failed to score.
Felipe Massa was only P12, while Valtteri Bottas picked up damage in the first-lap incident, had to pit with a seatbelt problem and eventually retired.
Kvyat claimed ninth, with Kevin Magnussen tenth for only Renault’s second points-scoring finish of the season.
Romain Grosjean’s nightmare weekend, which already included two crashes and a gearbox-change penalty, resulted in a brake failure on his Haas that prevented him from even taking the start.
Singapore Grand Prix, race results after 61 laps:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h55m48.950s
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 0.488s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 8.038s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 10.219s
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 27.694s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m11.197s
7 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m29.198s
8 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m49.146s
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m49.867s
10 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m51.843s
11 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1 Lap
12 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
13 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 Lap
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1 Lap
16 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1 Lap
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
18 Esteban Ocon Manor-Mercedes 2 Laps
– Jenson Button McLaren-Honda Retirement
– Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes Retirement
– Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari Not started
– Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes Collision
Drivers’ standings:
1 Nico Rosberg 273
2 Lewis Hamilton 265
3 Daniel Ricciardo 179
4 Sebastian Vettel 153
5 Kimi Raikkonen 148
6 Max Verstappen 129
7 Valtteri Bottas 70
8 Sergio Perez 66
9 Nico Hulkenberg 46
10 Felipe Massa 41
11 Fernando Alonso 36
12 Carlos Sainz 30
13 Romain Grosjean 28
14 Daniil Kvyat 25
15 Jenson Button 17
16 Kevin Magnussen 7
17 Pascal Wehrlein 1
18 Stoffel Vandoorne 1
19 Esteban Gutierrez 0
20 Jolyon Palmer 0
21 Marcus Ericsson 0
22 Felipe Nasr 0
23 Rio Haryanto 0
24 Esteban Ocon 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 538
2 Red Bull-Renault 316
3 Ferrari 301
4 Force India-Mercedes 112
5 Williams-Mercedes 111
6 McLaren-Honda 54
7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 47
8 Haas-Ferrari 28
9 Renault 7
10 Manor-Mercedes 1
11 Sauber/Ferrari 0
Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. September 30-October 2.
Singapore Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com:
A superb drive saw Nico Rosberg win Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix after holding off a late charge from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.4s. With Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton finishing third, Rosberg now heads his team mate in the standings by eight points.
Kimi Raikkonen narrowly missed out on a podium for Ferrari, while team mate Sebastian Vettel – voted Driver of the Day by fans – followed him home a strong fifth after starting from the back of the grid. Max Verstappen was sixth for Red Bull, ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, with Force India’s Sergio Perez, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen completing the top ten.
It was a race book-ended by drama.
As Rosberg headed Ricciardo, Hamilton and Raikkonen into the first corner, Max Verstappen made a very slow start. And as Carlos Sainz took his Toro Rosso to the right of the Red Bull, he came into contact with Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India which was spun across the Dutchman’s bows and hard into the pit wall.
The safety car was immediately deployed and caught some on their back foot when it went in after the second lap. Rosberg easily maintained an advantage over Ricciardo, to whom Hamilton could offer no challenge as he struggled throughout with brake temperatures. The leader had a similar problem, but was able to manage it more easily in his cleaner air.
Stalemate briefly set in until Raikkonen snuck past Hamilton on the 33rd lap; the Finn was running Pirelli’s supersoft tyres, the Englishman softs, but the latter admitted he had made mistake over the bumps.
Hamilton led only briefly on the 34th lap, as the three drivers ahead of him pitted, but then made his own stop. He was told he could use full power as he took another set of soft Pirelli tyres and began to move in on Raikkonen, who had taken the same rubber, but then Mercedes switched their second car to Plan B, which entailed a final stop for supersofts on the 45th lap. Ferrari covered that by bringing Raikkonen in for ultrasofts a lap later, but Hamilton crucially got the undercut to snatch back the final podium slot. Red Bull emulated their strategies and ignited the race as Ricciardo came in for supersofts on the 47th lap.
Rosberg held a 25.8s lead by the 48th lap and seemed to be home and dry, but when he ran into traffic Mercedes missed the chance to bring him in. By lap 49 Ricciardo had already hacked nearly four seconds off his advantage and suddenly a final stop for Rosberg would have dropped him to fourth.
Thus began a tense battle as Ricciardo sliced the gap down, sometimes by as much as three seconds a lap. Behind the two leaders, Raikkonen kept the pressure on Hamilton, who had come alive again before he found himself having to manage his brakes once more and losing pace. Soon, all eyes were on the lead battle, and the fight for third became secondary.
Ricciardo had the gap down to 11.8s by lap 53 and the maths was working for the Australian, who was as desperate to avenge his Monaco defeat as Rosberg was to celebrate his landmark 200th Grand Prix with a 21st victory.
Lap 56, and 5.2s; Lap 58, and 4.6s; Lap 60, and only 2.0s.
Rosberg, meanwhile, was also managing soft tyres that were nearly 28 laps old, and his brake temperatures. And he was coming up on Magnussen’s Renault which was on the back of a heady fight between Perez and Kvyat. All round that final lap, Ricciardo was closing, closing. But there was no dramatic last-corner denouement, as Rosberg held it together and crossed the line those four crucial tenths of a second ahead.
His eighth victory of the season makes him the first non-champion to win in Singapore and puts him on 273 points, to Hamilton’s 265. The reigning champion was 7.5s behind Ricciardo, but crucially 2.1s ahead of Raikkonen, whose ultrasofts were fading.
An excellent run (effectively a two-stopper) saw Sebastian Vettel climb from last to fifth and deservedly secure the Driver of the Day vote from fans, as Verstappen drove another typically feisty race, with plentiful overtaking, as he fought back from eighth place on the opening lap to take sixth.
Fernando Alonso brought his McLaren home seventh, having at one stage run as high as fifth, as Perez just held off Kvyat by four-tenths for eighth. The Mexican recovered well from his penalised 17th starting position, while the Russian had his most convincing performance since China, when he was still a Red Bull driver.
Magnussen took the final point for Renault, followed home by Haas’s Esteban Gutierrez, Williams’ Felipe Massa, Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, the delayed Sainz, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, who fended off Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson by four-tenths of a second, and the German’s Manor team mate Esteban Ocon, who incurred a five-second time penalty for overtaking under the safety car early on.
With Romain Grosjean non-starting because of brake troubles on his Haas, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas – who had picked up a rear puncture and front wing damage respectively in the Lap 1 melee – joined Hulkenberg on the retirements list, both pulling into the pits midrace with mechanical issues.
Lewis Hamilton said he couldn’t have finished better than third in the Singapore Grand Prix because of the trouble he was having with his brakes.
Both Mercedes drivers were told on the radio during the race that they had a braking problem.
“I was having such a problem with my brakes, it doesn’t matter what strategy they put me on,” Hamilton told reporters in Singapore.
“The first stop we extended the tyres, we were supposed to go to lap 11 and we ended up, I was at 14 and they pitted me the same lap as they pit Daniel [Ricciardo], which didn’t make sense to me. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity. But anyway as I say I had such problems with my brakes I wouldn’t have been able to beat Daniel anyway.”
Hamilton lost third place to Kimi Raikkonen at one stage after running wide but was able to get ahead of the Ferrari again later on. The Mercedes drivers said he wasn’t able to achieve a better result today.
“I feel like I did everything I could,” said Hamilton. “Obviously when you have a mistake that’s not a great thing but it wouldn’t have made really much difference.”
“A very trying weekend. These ones come along sometimes, you just need to take it on the chin.”
Hamilton lost the lead in the championship to Nico Rosberg but said he is remaining calm.
“I’ve been exactly in this point in the season in this position before but I’ve definitely been in a lot worse.”
Source: F1Fanatic.co.uk
Yet again, Ferrari’s race strategy was questioned as there was an opportunity for Kimi Raikkonen to finish third. But Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene defends The Iceman’s strategy as Autosport.com reports.
Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Maurizio Arrivabene insists bringing Kimi Raikkonen in for a third pitstop in the Singapore Grand Prix was correct, even though the Finn lost a podium finish.
Raikkonen ran third after a mid-race overtaking move on Lewis Hamilton when Mercedes switched strategy and pitted the world champion for fresh ultra-soft tyres.
Ferrari had the choice of leaving Raikkonen out on his soft tyres for the final 16 laps and hoping Hamilton did not make up the deficit his stop had created, or immediately pitting in response.
Raikkonen was called in but Hamilton’s out-lap was quick enough that he was ahead by the time the Ferrari left the pitlane, and he stayed ahead to the finish.
Asked by Autosport if he felt Ferrari had made the right choice, Arrivabene replied: “To be 100% sure, you have to look at the data.
“It was the right decision to take.
“If we were having huge degradation [on the soft tyres] and Mercedes were taking us, we would have been crazy.
“We took a decision looking at our data. The thing to do afterwards is verify if our data was right.”
Raikkonen believes there were things Ferrari could learn from in the race, but was unsure whether staying out would have paid off or not.
“We could have got to the end,” he said when asked by Autosport how his softs would have held up had he stuck with a two-stop.
“But would they have caught us or been able to pass us? I don’t know yet.
“There are certain things we could have done but obviously afterwards it’s very easy to say.
“Obviously, they managed to get in front of us again so we lost the place.
“There was not much we could do anymore by that point.”
After the suspension failure in qualifying that left him at the back of the grid, Sebastian Vettel recovered to fifth in the second Ferrari.
He ran a two-stop strategy, with a long opening stint on softs before using two sets of new ultra-softs to complete his progress.
“If you look at the race now without safety cars there might have been a better way to get to the end, but I think it was a very good strategy that helped us keep our options open and straightaway be in touch with the leaders,” said Vettel.
“Obviously I was hoping for a safety car at some point to get me close to the leaders. Then anything could have happened.
“I had an advantage with my tyres, with fresh sets that I didn’t use yesterday.
“But there wasn’t a safety car, which was a bit of a surprise.”
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo says he cannot be unhappy about finishing second in Singapore on Sunday, despite missing out on victory by just 0.4s following a thrilling late charge at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The result secured a fourth podium in five races for the Australian, but leaves him still chasing a first win of the season, despite Red Bull having identified Singapore as their best opportunity to defeat Mercedes, for whom Nico Rosberg took top honours.
“I’m not going to stand here and be disappointed,” Ricciardo said. “I am pretty happy – I did all I could.
“Obviously the strategy still didn’t give us victory, but it was good fun to push to the last lap and know I was at least putting some pressure on, and giving the crowd some hope.
“If anything could have been more perfect it was the start, but even with an amazing start I don’t think we would have got the jump [on polesitter Rosberg].
“We’ve come close on numerous occasions, [and today] we gave it a good shot and got within half a second.”
While the last six races of the season are not expected to suit Red Bull to the same extent as Singapore, Ricciardo insists he has not abandoned hope of claiming a fourth Grand Prix triumph.
“After the race I said to the team we will win somewhere,” he added, “Hopefully we can get some rain and get the victory we are after!”
Source: Formula1.com
Lewis Hamilton says he is still in with a fighting chance of winning the Formula One world championship, despite seeing Nico Rosberg overtake him in the standings after the German’s win at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
Rosberg led from the front after qualifying on pole to record his third straight victory and he now holds an eight-point lead over Hamilton, who finished third at the Marina Bay Street Circuit after enduring braking issues throughout the gruelling night race.
Hamilton briefly lost third place to the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, but a smart pit strategy earned an undercut for the driver and ensured he finished on the podium, but it was a frustrating race for the Briton.
“Definitely not [a great weekend] but firstly big congratulations to Nico – he drove fantastically all weekend,” said Hamilton.
“This weekend has been a tricky one for me but I’m just happy to get on the podium and get some points for the team.
“The brakes were way overheating so I had to slow down. Once I did my second or third stop we managed to sort it out.
“It’s a lot different to when I was here last year but I’m still in the fight and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”
Hamilton’s scrap with Raikkonen was one of the most dramatic individual battles of the day and the three-time champion was pleased to come out on top.
“We were both pushing quite hard in that stint and we both wouldn’t have made it to the end at that pace we were going,” Hamilton said.
“I was pushing on that out lap to see if we could undercut him, and fortunately we did.”
Source: Yahoo Sport