Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel took his third victory of the year in one of the most tested circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, the Singapore Grand Prix. Mercedes team, on the other hand, experienced difficulties, and Lewis Hamilton saw his first withdrawal of 2015.
Vettel was dominant during the race at the Marina Bay circuit, as it had to be stopped twice; the second stop was due to a man strolling along the track. The German’s performance was exceptional and reminded the fans of his glorious triumphs for Red Bull.
The world champion Hamilton endured a poor race and eventually was asked to retire.
Other Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg finished fourth and is now 41 points adrift of Hamilton’s lead; the Singapore winner Vettel is now closing the gap for second place, as Rosberg is only eight points ahead of him. Looking ahead to this weekend’s Japanese GP, Mercedes would certainly work hard to fix the issues, which are believed to be related to the super-soft tyres, and get back to their usual winning mode.
Red Bull performed well as Daniel Ricciardo took second for his team; Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen came third.
Valterri Bottas of Williams took fifth, ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat, and Force India's Sergio Perez was seventh, fending off the Toro Rossos of 17 year –old Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in eight and ninth.
Singapore GP was another bad race for the McLaren-Honda’s team: their Spanish driver Fernando Alonso had to retire from ninth place with a car failure, and it was down to his team-mate Jenson Button to earn some points, which unfortunately did not transpire. The Brit was running in 10th place after the second restart, but then broke his front wing on the back of Lotus's Pastor Maldonado’s car; the incident led to his retirement and ended McLaren-Honda’s chance of points. Button later complained about Maldonado’s risky driving style.
There are six more races that are remained for this season and Mercedes’ team expect things to go back to normal this weekend in Japan.