F1: Ten Glorious Years of Singapore Grand Prix

#2 2009: Hamilton's Year

Hamilton from Pole to Chequered Flag

Chaka Khan, Travis, and Backstreet Boys performed during the event, but on the track, it was Lewis Hamilton all the way, driving a flawless race under the hot, sweltering Singapore climate. He benefitted from errors from other drivers.

Rosberg, then driving for Williams, could have exerted pressure on Hamilton but was given a drive-through penalty for trespassing the white line on pit exit.

Sebastian Vettel, another possible contender for the race victory, was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Mark Webber crashed out.

Finishing behind Hamilton on second place was Timo Glock of Toyota and the other podium went to the Spaniard, Alonso driving for Renault, who were weathering a torrid time off-the-track as FIA banned their former team principal, Flavio Briatore, for the Piquet crash.

Although Button finished fifth behind Vettel, he was able to extend his title lead by one point to stretch his points to 84 points.

Having qualified 12th, the British driver would have satisfied with the final outcome. His title rival and teammate Rubens Barrichello finished a place behind at sixth.

Coming back to Hamilton’s drive, it was a dominating drive from the pole position, all the way to the chequered flag, and winning by a 9.6 seconds margin.

The victory was also impressive, as the team had to rebuild his car, as it was diagnosed with a failure in electrical wiring deep in the car, and the mechanics toiled late into Friday night to get the car ready for qualification.

Lewis would also have had his heart on the mouth, when the team engineer radioed to inform about a (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) KERS-related issue in his car, during the race. The issue was fixed during the race, fiddling some buttons in Lewis’ car. On that day, no one could deny Lewis Hamilton the topmost place on the podium.