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The Frantic Finish
The leading pair pitted for their final swigs of fuel, and Alonso emerged just ahead of David Coulthard and a recovering Lewis Hamilton. Coulthard was perhaps disorientated by Alonso's sudden re-emergence, and Hamilton needed no second invitation to take advantage. Coulthard positioned his Red Bull well but Lewis sent his McLaren down the inside in a terrific diving move.
On Lap 40, the two-stoppers were making their final treks down pit-lane and Coulthard performed his best Felipe Massa impression by driving away with the fuel hose still attached. The Scot got away with it, losing only a handful of seconds while his mechanics leaned a hand.
With just 11 laps remaining, Adrian Sutil, possibly put off by Massa's spin, slammed into the barriers at Turn 18. This triggered the safety car once more and erased Alonso's impressive lead. When racing resumed, Hamilton was desperately trying to get by Rosberg for second place and the pair renewed their rivalry from the junior formulae.
Kimi Raikkonen had quietly been going about his business since his own slow stop, running as high as third place. The Finn was in fifth place at the restart but crashed into the barriers at the controversial Singapore Sling chicane with just a few laps to go. Surprisingly, the safety car didn't make another appearance and there were no further changes of position.
Nico Rosberg achieved his best finish in Formula 1 with second place while Lewis Hamilton scored a solid podium in third. A German trio of Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel and Nick Heidfeld came from relatively nowhere to finish 4th, 5th and 6th, respectively. David Coulthard and Kazuki Nakajima scored their final F1 points by finishing in 7th and 8th.
Through it all, it was Fernando Alonso who took his first win of the year with a sensational drive. In the drivers' championship, Hamilton opened up his advantage over Massa from 2 to 8 points at the top. But this was far from the last we heard about this race though.
