The Singapore Grand Prix is one of the most challenging races on the Formula 1 calendar and Nico Rosberg managed to prove his dominance tonight. The Mercedes-AMG driver won the title despite an aggressive Daniel Ricciardo trailing behind at second place with a gap of just 0.4 seconds, while teammate Lewis Hamilton finished third ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
The only F1 night race on the calendar, the Singapore GP started with a bang as Nico Hulkenburg of Sahara Force India crashed at the grid as Carlos Seinz of Torro Rosso sandwiched him, sending him into a spin and crashing into the wall. However, it was Max Verstappen's slow start that not only ruined his prospects, but also caused the bottleneck resulting in the crash.
Nico Hulkenberg's crash at Singapore GP
With Hulkenburg's crash, the safety car took for Lap 1 and continued till the race was restarted on Lap 3, and saw Rosberg pull away at the first instance. Daniel Ricciardo followed closely, but Rosberg created the right safety net with the gap extending to over 7 seconds at a time.
However, Ricciardo's move to super softs at lap 47 worked well for the driver as he immediately 3 seconds faster than Rosberg in the following laps. The last 3 laps saw a strong comeback from the Red Bull driver as he closed the gap to a mere 0.4s in the final lap. Hamilton too spiced things up after lap 45 as he was struggling to get past Raikkonen, but a change in strategy immediately saw his pace improve and moved to super softs with just 16 laps remaining.
Nico Rosberg dominated the Singapore GP right from the grid
While Ferrari pitted Raikkonen a lap later to compete with Hamilton's strategy, the Briton was surging forward with the Ferrari driver failing to catch up in the remainder of the race.
The other star of the race turned out to be Sebastian Vettel as the German driver started at the back-of-the-grid at P22, but finished fifth at the end of the race ahead of Verstappen. Fernando Alonso secured seventh for McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez of Force India, who also made a dramatic comeback after starting 18th on the grid.
Daniel Ricciardo showed stellar performance over the weekend
An impressive drive by Daniil Kvyat rewarded him with two points having finished ninth ahead of Renault's Kevin Magnussen who took the last point on offer in tenth. Kvyat however, had to face tough competition from Verstappen early in the race, but definitely made for some striking overtakes. As for retirements, the race saw four retirements including Jenson Button and Valtteri Bottas of Torro Rosso who retired in the pits, while Romain Grojean did not start.
Verstappen and Kvyat had an impressive duel early in the race
With the win, Rosberg now leads the driver standings by 273 points ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton that secures the second position with 265 points. Daniel Ricciardo finishes third. As for the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes-AMG continues to maintain its leadership with 538 points, followed by Red Bull (316 points) and Ferrari (301 points). Checo managed to score crucial points for Sahra Force India tonight, and has helped the team to move up to the fourth place with 112 points, beating Williams Racing by 1 point.
