Singapore:Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory in the Singapore GP after Lewis Hamilton's McLaren retired.Hamilton headed Vettel from the start but a gearbox failure dealt a major blow to the Briton's world title hopes.Fellow British driver Jenson Button took second in his McLaren from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who leads Vettel by 29 points in the standings.Hamilton slips to fourth, 52 points off the lead with only 150 available, seven points behind Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen.The retirement means Hamilton will almost certainly not be able to catch Alonso in the remaining six races, barring some bad luck for the Spaniard, and it remains to be seen whether the latest in a series of disappointments this season has an effect on his future career choice.
Vettel's pace following Hamilton's exit suggested the McLaren might have been holding up the Red Bull slightly but Hamilton was in control of the race until his car lost drive on lap 23 coming out of the first chicane.
The re-start of the race came on lap 39 after the crash by Narain Karthikeyan's HRT brought out the safety car. But the cars raced for only half a lap before Michael Schumacher smashed into the back of Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne, who was battling with Sauber's Sergio Perez.
It was the second time in succession Schumacher had retired in Singapore after running into the back of another car – and the second time this season after doing the same to Williams's Bruno Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Although Vettel was saved from a collision with Button thanks to the British driver’s fast reactions at the safety car restart, the German driver made himself the only man to win twice at the Singapore circuit."I think it's one of the toughest races of the year," said Vettel.
Vettel was investigated after the race for an incident at the first safety-car re-start in which he slowed unexpectedly and Button nearly hit him from behind, but after a lengthy deliberation the stewards decided to take no action.courtesy-BBC
Singapore GP result
1. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull 2:00:26.144 = 25pts
2. Jenson Button – McLaren+00:08.959 = 18pts
3. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari +00:15.227 = 15pts
4. Paul Di Resta – Force Indi+00:19.063 = 12pts
5. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes +00:34.784 =10pts
6. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus+00:35.759 = 8pts
7. Romain Grosjean – Lotus+00:36.698 = 6pts
8. Felipe Massa – Ferrari +00:42.829 = 4pts
9. Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso+00:45.820 = 2pts
10. Sergio Perez – Sauber +00:50.619 = 1pts
