Nico Rosberg held off a dramatic late charge from Daniel Ricciardo to win the Singapore Grand Prix and move ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the title race.
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While it initially appeared as if Rosberg would race unchallenged to the victory at the Marina Bay circuit, a late decision from Red Bull to pit Daniel Ricciardo upped the ante.
“Ricciardo was out of the blocks with unbelievable pace and it was really exciting at the end”.
Despite both Mercedes drivers being warned about brake management from the early laps, Rosberg controlled most of the race.
“By the time I started the last lap, I knew it was enough as his tyres were not fresh”.
The German had started two points behind Hamilton and, despite leading comfortably halfway though the race, crossed the line just 0.488 seconds ahead of Ricciardo after having to complete the last 28 laps on the same soft tyres.
With overtaking hard on the 5.065-kilometre street circuit, tyre strategies were the key to gaining places.
Given that, a third place finish and an eight-point championship deficit to Rosberg represented an acceptable level of damage limitation.
At this point, Mercedes chose to switch Hamilton’s strategy and unleashed him from managing his tyres and told him to close on Raikkonen.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo put in a gutsy performance to take second at the Singapore Grand Prix and a fourth podium in five races.
Mercedes’ choice of softs for its second stint, when Ricciardo stayed on super-softs, left Hamilton moaning at his team over the radio.
The start was bad luck for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was relegated from fourth on the grid to eighth as he took evasive action as Hulkenberg span past his front wing.
At the start of the F1 race Nico Hulkenberg was involved in a heavy crash which saw the safety vehicle deployed.
Alonso held on to the place through the subsequent safety vehicle period and the first and second stops, fending off heavy pressure from Sainz’s team-mate Daniil Kvyat and Verstappen.
It allowed Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, starting from the back of the grid after mechanical issues throughout practice and qualifying this weekend, to change strategy and work his way into a fifth-place finish.
He swapped tyres to supersofts with 13 laps to go.
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Germany’s Nico Rosberg has regained the lead in the Driver’s Championship after winning the Singapore Grand Prix. Alonso won the first race there, in 2008.
