Singapore GP: Top 5 Drivers of the race

Sebastian Vettel dominated the Singapore GP from start to finish to take his 33rd Grand Prix victory. The German was in class of his own and finished the race with a margin of 30 seconds over rest of his rivals. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were pitted under the Safety Car and joined Vettel on the podium.

Sergio Perez and Jenson Button performed well in their McLarens but they couldn’t manage their tyres as well as the world champions on the podium. Nevertheless, their performance was enough to be one of out top five drivers of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel – 10/10

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel didn’t put a foot wrong in Singapore as he took his 33rd career win. The victory takes him ahead of Fernando Alonso in the all time list of Grand Prix winners. He further completed the his third career Grand Prix Grand Slam.

Like in Monza, Vettel got a poor getaway and lost out to Nico Rosberg at the start of the race but when the latter went wide into turn 2, the German regained his lead. From there it was no looking back as Sebastian Vettel continued to increase his advantage by a second per lap, only to be instructed by his race engineer slow down.

The triple world champion’s gap over the rest of the field was so big that he didn’t lose any places when he made his final stop on lap 44. In the end, Vettel finished the race by a massive margin on 30 seconds. After the race, Niki Lauda went on to say that Vettel had the pace to lap the whole field.

Fernando Alonso – 9/10

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso made up for his poor qualifying with a brilliant start that took him from seventh on the grid to third by the end of first lap. He retained his third place after his first pit stop and then led the drivers who pitted under the Safety Car. As we now all know, that was the right decision and when Nico Rosberg pitted on lap 41, he moved up into second place.

The Spaniard then controlled his pace and his tyres for the next 20 laps to take his third consecutive second place finish of the season. After the race, he said that his second place felt like victory. Now we don’t need to draw any inferences from it, it’s self explanatory.

Kimi Raikkonen – 9/10

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen looked rather lacklustre in his Lotus E21 on Saturday when he could only qualify in 13th place. But in the race, with two inspired pit stops, he gained 10 places to take the final spot on the podium.

Raikkonen gained two places in first few laps but then got struck behind the McLaren of Sergio Perez. He then took an inspired decision to pit on lap 10 and put some quick laps in clean air. On lap 25, he was pitted under the Safety Car and managed his tyres beautifully for the next 38 lap to move from ninth (after his stop) to third by the end of the race.

Sergio Perez – 7/10

Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez was another driver who transformed a poor grid slot to a strong race result on Sunday. First of all, he straight away gained five places on the very first lap to move into the 10th spot. He then pitted under the Safety Car on lap 25 and completed the race without any subsequent pit stops.

During this stint he ran as high as fifth place, before the three pit stoppers came back at him and he fell down into eight place. Nevertheless, he managed his tyres better than his experienced teammate Jenson Button and deserves a place in our top 5 drivers of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Jenson Button – 7/10

Jenson Button

Jenson Button had to take the risk of pitting under the Safety Car and do a long final stint, if McLaren had any chance of finishing on the podium. However, he wore his tyres a bit too much in order to keep Raikkonen at bay and then felt powerless to his rivals in final few laps of the race. Nevertheless, Button finished the race in seventh place in what according to him was in accordance to pace of his car.