Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton snagged first place at the Singapore Grand Prix to extend his lead over Sebastian Vettel in the driver’s championship.

A FREAK piece of luck for Lewis Hamilton saw the Brit take Singapore with relative ease after a chaotic start saw both of Ferrari’s drivers spiral out of the race.

Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen were all forced to retire after a massive collision before the first corner, opening up first place for Hamilton.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo sat behind the Mercedes top dog for the majority of the race and grabbed second place on the podium ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

12am

Hamilton conquers Singapore after Ricciardo prediction realised

Lewis Hamilton had been worried about how many points he would lose to Sebastian Vettel in Singapore. It was supposed to be a damage limitation exercise for Mercedes after a poor performance in qualifying. Instead, Hamilton took a significant stride toward the world title after winning Sunday’s race from fifth place on the grid.

Vettel made one of the worst starts of his distinguished career, throwing away pole position as he recklessly caused a crash heading into the first corner. The Ferrari driver took three others out with him — and critically none was a Mercedes.

Instead of moving ahead of Hamilton in their enthralling title battle, Vettel now trails him by 28 points with six races left.

“It couldn’t be a more perfect scenario,” Hamilton said. “I definitely went in today thinking it was about damage limitation. To come out of it in the other direction is a shock.”

Vettel was supposed to score heavily here. With less speed and 23 turns, the hard-braking Marina Bay circuit suited Ferrari much more than Mercedes. This was further reflected in qualifying, with Bottas sixth and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen starting fourth.

Furthermore, Vettel had the Singapore record for wins (four) and podiums (six). But in a few seconds, he threw it all away.

The German driver gunned across the track, triggering first-turn mayhem and causing a domino effect as Raikkonen, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso all crashed with him.

Daniel Ricciardo had joked pre-race that he could win the race if “Max takes Seb out” but no one saw this coming.

.@danielricciardo is hoping for some help from his teammate 😂



"I still believe we can do it, ideally Max takes Seb out"#SingaporeGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/h7oMnQJeKt — Formula 1 (@F1) September 17, 2017

On one of the toughest tracks in Formula One for overtaking, Hamilton would have been pleased with a podium finish.

Instead, the field opened up perfectly for the British driver to seal his third straight win, seventh of the season and 60th overall.

“I capitalised on the incident,” Hamilton said. “Who could have known that would happen?”

After a hesitant start, Vettel veered hastily left as he tried to counter Verstappen’s strong start. It was a needless move so early on, and squeezed Verstappen and Raikkonen for room, causing them to collide on the inside. Vettel’s recklessness was even more pointless, because Verstappen is not in the title race.

Raikkonen’s wobbling car tagged Vettel’s before spinning across the track, careering spectacularly into Verstappen and Alonso.

“I watched the chaos unfold in front of me. It was probably good that I had a bad start,” said Ricciardo, who has seven podiums in the past 10 races. “It gave me time to see what would happen.”

Stewards summoned Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen to a meeting after the race, but no further action was taken.

Hamilton stayed left, picking his spot, and avoiding any danger as he moved into the lead.

“I saw this commotion happening,” Hamilton said. “Then it was all about managing the tires.” After a few laps behind the safety car, the race resumed for real on lap 7. Vettel was already in the garage contemplating the heavily damaged front wing and left of his car.

After apologising to his team, the four-time F1 champion tried to explain himself.

“I saw Max and then next thing I see is Kimi hitting the side of me and Max somewhere there,” said Vettel, who remains optimistic about his title hopes. “I’m sure there will be more opportunities.”

Verstappen, who had started from second on the grid ahead of Ricciardo, blamed Vettel.

“When you’re fighting for a world championship you shouldn’t do that,” the 19-year-old Dutchman said. “It was not very clever.” Vettel and Verstappen were involved in heated incidents last season, and the ill feeling still seems to linger.

Alonso, meanwhile, bravely continued but retired on lap 9.

“The car was completely destroyed on the left side,” the Spaniard said. The safety car came out again shortly after, as Daniil Kvyat crashed his Toro Rosso.

By the next restart on lap 15, Ricciardo had changed tires, but Hamilton hadn’t.

Hamilton eventually changed them on lap 30 of 61, and timed it right as he was a healthy nine seconds ahead of Ricciardo afterwards.

Marcus Ericsson stalled his Sauber on lap 39, bringing the safety car out again — which irritated Hamilton.

This is because safety cars stop the leader’s momentum, allowing others to close the gap.

Now Vettel is the one who must do that at the Malaysian GP in two weeks’ time.

11.45am

Hulkenberg makes unwanted history

Nico Hulkenberg officially holds the title of the longest F1 career without a podium after sensationally retiring from the Singapore Grand Prix with just five minutes left in the race. The German star has failed to place in the top three in a whopping 128 starts in the sport.

“What a travesty,” David Croft said as the 30-year-old rolled into the pits with a hydraulic problem.

Lewis Hamilton took the quickest lap of the race with a time of 1.45.008 before taking the win as the clock hit midnight (AEST).

Daniel Ricciardo took second after sitting a solid four seconds behind the Briton for the majority of the race.

“I can’t win the bloody thing,” Ricciardo said jokingly after the race. “We didn’t have the Friday pace to have the pace on Mercedes. A little bit disappointed to miss out on a win but I’m grateful for another podium.

“I watched the chaos in front of me. It was probably a good thing I had a poor start as I’d have been caught up in it. It looked like three going into one but I don’t know who’s fault it was. It was just too close.”

11:27pm

Another Safety Car follows Ericsson blunder

Marcus Ericsson has been forced to the sidelines after hitting a wall in the 38th lap, finding himself looking the other way as the rest of the pack zoomed around him.

Nice Hulkenberg was hit by a bout of bad luck after a strong drive in fourth place. The German driver ran into what appears to be a hydraulics problem in the late stage of the race.

“That is some cruel, cruel luck for Hulkenberg,” Martin Brundle said.

Kimi Raikkonen has avoided taking a swipe at teammate Sebastian Vettel after their chaotic collision before the first corner.

“He knows politically it’s not a smart thing to do but the blame can only be pointed in one direction,” he said.

11:15pm

Hamilton in complete control

After a chaotic start, the drivers have finally begun behaving themselves.

Lewis Hamilton is having a dream run and looks likely to take first place as his lead over Daniel Ricciardo in second grows close to the nine second mark.

Valtteri Bottas sits a whopping 25 seconds behind his Mercedes teammate in what has been a dream come true for the Silver Arrows after Ferrari blasted themselves out of the race on the first corner.

10:49pm

Crisis averted: ‘That could have been nasty’

Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa had fans nervously biting their tongues as they clashed midway through the race. The pair brushed tyres in a brief exchange but were able to pull away before anything chaotic unfolded.

“That could have been nasty,” Martin Brundle said. “That would have been an aeroplane crash if they had gone into the wall.”

The race looks set to be timed-out with only 25/61 laps completed by the hour mark.

10:40pm

‘Has everybody changed tyres but me?’

Lewis Hamilton sits just over a second ahead of Daniel Ricciardo as the drivers restart after the second Safety Car.

“Has everybody changed tyres but me? Not sure that was a good idea,” Hamilton questioned his team.

Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel has responded to the early carnage which saw himself, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen spiral out of the race.

“Not ideal is it,” he said on Sky Sports.

“I didn’t see that much. I saw Max and then next thing I see is Kimi hitting the side of me and Max somewhere there.”

10:30pm

Daniil Kvyat crashes out

Another Safety Car was called to the track after Daniil Kvyat crashed headfirst into a barrier after overtaking Kevin Magnussen for 10th place.

Daniel Ricciardo has returned from the pits with a new set of intermediate tyres as the track dries out.

10:24pm

Ricciardo hot on Hamilton’s tail

The drivers returned after the race was stopped to clear debris with Lewis Hamilton capitalising on a dream start and taking first place. The Briton will need to fend off Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, who is hot on his tail in second — but the wet weather and Singapore’s tight circuit means overtaking opportunities are very slim.

Nice Hulkenberg sits in third and will aim to take his first podium finish in the F1 after 128 starts.

10pm

‘Carnage!’: Absolute mayhem rocks first corner

What just happened?

The Singapore Grand Prix descended into chaos in the first five seconds after Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen crashed out in a scuffle before the first corner as rain pelted down.

Raikkonen and Vettel collided after an impressive start from the Finn — and Verstappen was unlucky enough be sideswiped by Raikkonen as the teen Red Bull took the first corner.

“Carnage!” Sky Sport’s David Croft said. “This is an utter disaster.”

“I don’t see anything other than the two Ferrari drivers having to take the blame for that,” Martin Brundle brooded.

We can only imagine the conversation Kimi and Seb are having right now.

Lewis Hamilton was gifted with the dream start after the first lap mayhem and now sits in first place after a horror qualifying weekend threatened to thwart his championship lead.

8.30pm

Mercedes’ worst nightmare comes true

Beaten not only by both Ferraris but the two Red Bulls as well, it was a horrible case of déjà vu for Mercedes as it was left to lock out the third row of the grid like in 2015.

The Silver Arrows had feared the worst in the build-up and their struggles around tight, twisty circuits this season continued once again.

Lewis Hamilton recorded his second-worst qualifying result of the season, despite “giving it everything and more”, while teammate Valtteri Bottas was six tenths slower in the sister W08.

“We knew today would be tough but I didn’t anticipate Ferrari would be as strong as they were. I thought Red Bull would be as quick as they were,” Hamilton told Sky F1. “I don’t know where Ferrari have picked up that pace.”

Mercedes had no answer to the one-lap speed of their rivals.

The glimmer of hope for Hamilton will be that Singapore has served up plenty of drama in the past and a Safety Car period is a near certainty.

Given the lack of overtaking opportunities, the Briton will have to play the long game in his attempt to limit the damage to his title ambitions.

8.15pm

Vettel proves he’s master of Singapore

When the heat is on, great champions deliver and Sebastian Vettel proved once again that he is the master of the Marina Bay circuit with a storming lap to claim the 49th pole of his career.

Vettel’s hopes of making up the three-point deficit he holds to Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship at the first attempt had looked under threat after lacking pace on Friday and Saturday.

Red Bull had appeared in control all weekend but Vettel pulled it out of the bag when it mattered most, smashing the ultimate lap record with a 1:39.491 to finish three tenths clear of the rest of the field. It was arguably one of the best laps of the German’s glittering career.

“That was one of those mega pole positions you see from a great champion,” Sky F1’s Damon Hill said.

Vettel’s time was half a second better than teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s and more than six tenths quicker than what Hamilton could manage.

This is a track Vettel loves and if he can hold off the two Red Bulls immediately behind him at the start, he’ll be odds-on for a fifth win in Singapore on Sunday.