F1 losing toughest race on calendar says Hamilton

But with just six races remaining, Mercedes has the upper hand and Vettel’s margin for error is increasingly small.

The 2017 Formula One season will move to the Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix next weekend.

Vettel can be certainly confident at the next two races, more so Suzuka in Japan, that he can fight for the win. The top two drivers this season will be hoping to have much better days in 2017 than what they had in Malaysia past year.

Sepang was the first F1 track to be designed by renowned circuit architect Hermann Tilke. The fireworks started early in Singapore with a controversial wreck at the start. “Fridays are when you play around and try some things”, Vettel said.

Vettel already trails Hamilton by 28 points and the Briton’s lead looks likely to stretch further on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton has added his voice to the surge of criticism of Donald Trump after the United States president’s condemnation of National Football League players led to widespread protests by North American athletes. The good news for Hamilton is Sebastien Vettel’s 2016 Singapore Grand Prix was short-lived.

Sebastian Vettel was forced out after failing to make a timed lap in Q1.

Hamilton won four of the five races after Malaysia previous year but it was still not enough to stop team mate Nico Rosberg taking the title.

After blowing pole position by causing a crash at the Singapore GP two weeks ago, the Ferrari driver threw away a golden chance to regain the championship lead from Lewis Hamilton. Bottas sits a distant third in the point standings.

Mercedes got both drivers back out after their trips into the gravel, but Bottas could only manage fifth, 1.459s adrift of Vettel. The 25 points Bottas could gain would propel him into 2nd place and within striking distance of Hamilton.

“It was a shame for the team what happened with Sebastian [Vettel]”.

Despite the sizeable deficit he needs to overcome, Vettel has no doubts he can still claim a fifth F1 crown this year.

Hamilton retired with 16 laps to go after his engine blew up while leading the race.

Red Bull cashed in on Hamilton’s misfortune a year ago. The Milton-Keynes squad have claimed four Kuala Lumpur wins and Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen finished first and second last season.

Hamilton, now top of the drivers’ standings with 263 points after 14 rounds wants to redeem himself as he did not achieve a great result in Sepang previous year. The accident, which happened roughly 10 minutes before the session was scheduled to end, was immediately red flagged and was not resumed. A late flying lap on the super-soft tyres secured the position for the two-time world champion, leaving his McLaren higher in the order than the team would usually expect in Friday practice.