Vettel triumphs in Singapore as hapless Hamilton is forced to retire

The next race in the Formula 1 calendar is the Japanese Grand Prix on September 27. Sebastian Vettel was crowned the champion as he clocked an impressive 2:01:22.118 under lights. Hamilton thanked “TeamLH” because his defeat was softened because his fans supported him all the way – with the message “We win and lose together”.

Singapore was Hamilton’s first retirement of the season and if he could have picked a circumstance for it to happen, this pretty much would have been it.

Hamilton was himself hoping to equal Senna’s tally of 41 wins from 161 starts, but with Mercedes struggling for pace he lined up only fifth on the grid. It was the reigning world champ’s first non-finish of the season.

“Thanks to the guy, appreciate it”, Ricciardo quipped sarcastically after the race. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton retired for the first time in 2015 after technical problems on his Mercedes. He sent a message to all his supporters by through a tweet after the race. That put HUlkenberg out of the race immediately and Massa retired later.

The Formula 1 governing body FIA released a statement on the incident, which read: “A 27-year-old man has been arrested and is assisting police with investigations”. “A man on the track!”

“I don’t know if I have ever had a weekend like this. I hope it was in focus!” We approach that corner around 280-290 clicks (kilometres per hour; 174-180 miles per hour).

But he was far more circumspect after the first Safety vehicle re-start, suggesting that with Ricciardo’s Red Bull showing superior tyre wear, and with the optimum race strategy hovering between two and three stops, Ferrari were trying to match their rivals by choosing the former option. Along the way, he disobeyed team orders and refused to swop places with teammate Carlos Sainz.

The Briton fell to the back of the pack over the next laps before his team eventually called him in after the driver asked to be stopped. At a place where they weren’t supposed to be, they were rough and rude, pushing and shoving officials and photographers, including Yahoo Singapore’s own photographer.

The entire field started the grand prix on the P Zero Red supersoft tire, nominated together with the P Zero Yellow soft this weekend. “You can not write it off and say it was a one-off and on the other side you can not say we are terrified now by this because then you are going into panic mode – and that would be completely inappropriate and wrong”. With six races remaining in the season, things could still slip away from Hamilton.