Formula One race report: Vettel shines like a diamond in Singapore

The starting grid for the Singapore Formula One GP race was headed by three-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, in his RB9, with Nico Rosberg in his AMG MercedesF1 beside him, while Romain Grosjean surprised everyone by putting his Lotus on third spot. Webber, Hamilton, Massa And Alonso rounded up the top eight.

The 61 lap race started at 8pm local time, and all cars started cleanly. Rosberg made an attempt to pass Sebastian into turn 1 but overshot the corner and Vettel quickly re-took the lead. Alonso made a fantastic start from 8th; he dove right into turn 1 and made it stick. He eventually went to 3rd place even before half way of the first lap. Hamilton fighting with Massa for 6th but ran wide in turn 7 and rightly gave the position back, lest he be given  a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

With all his rivals behind him Sebastian kept on pushing and was about 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else. It was very clear that the German had everything under control and was not threatened in any way. He was in a class of his own.

The on lap 25, the expected happened, when Daniel Ricciardo on his Toro Rosso hit the wall at turn 18, (bay grandstand area) it brought out the safety car, and giving a sliver of hope to others of possibly catching the world champion. The rest of the field saw chance to pit and  take on fresh tires. When the racing resumed, Vettel went back to work and drove away from the rest of the field, leaving everyone to fight amongst themselves for the remaining points. Kimi Raikkonen, who started in 13th with a bad back, methodically went about his race, and after the second round of pit stops, he was battling for 3rd against Webber, until Mark’s gearbox gave up on him on the final lap . Alonso came in second behind Sebastian and Kimi stood on the last step of the podium.

After the fireworks went off and the smoke cleared, the drivers podium interview went underway, it  was very colorful to say the least, non-Sebastian fans kept heckling the German all throughout the live interview, veteran F1 commentator Martin Brundle had to step in and address the crowd to behave.

Vettel now leads the championship with 247 points 60 points ahead of second placer Fernando Alonso, and 96 points further back is Mercedes-AMG F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen is 98 points adrift, and is probably looking forward to finishing the season and rejoining his old team Ferrari, alongside Fernando Alonso for the 2014 season.

So unless Sebastian Vettel encounters some bad luck in the remaining six races, he will equal Frenchman Alain Prost, with four World Drivers titles by seasons end.  The 25 year old can now set his sights on Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of 5 world titles.