Posted on 18th September 2016
At the Singapore GP at the Marina Bay circuit this afternoon, Nico Rosberg claimed his eighth win of the 2016 season at his 200th GP in the sport to regain the lead of the Driver's Championship ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and his team mate Lewis Hamilton in a race which saw plenty of action and battles throughout the grid especially towards the end of the race.
Before the race, Sergio Perez received an eight place grid penalty for failing to slow down under yellow flags in Q2 after the incident with Romain Grosjean was ongoing. He then dropped down from tenth to eighteenth place. Also, Romain Grosjean received a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox after his accident in Q2 and then sadly having to retire from the race before it even begun.
The start of the Singapore GP was all go.s Race leader Nico Rosberg had a great start as did Kimi Raikkonen. Max Verstappen had an awful start and had dropped five places as a result of this. On the approach to the first corner, Nico Hulkenberg got tagged from behind by Carlos Sainz Jr and went into the wall. Hulkenberg got out of the car okay but he is officially out the race. This then brought out the Safety Car while the debris is cleared safely with the stewards also looking at the incident between the two drivers and deciding that no further action was needed.
As this was happening, Williams driver Valtteri Bottas on the first lap also suffers a rear left puncture as Jenson Button suffers front wing damage as the rest of the grid pits for new tyres. But as Bottas leaves the pitlane, he very nearly collided with the Ferrari of Vettel which was looked at by the stewards and no further action was needed.
The race resumed on Lap 3 as the Safety Car pulls back into the pitlane and Rosberg leads the race ahead of Ricciardo as Hamilton is catching the Red Bull driver in front of him with Raikkonen catching him as well. On Lap 5, Toro Rosso state to Sainz Jr via the team radio that his car has sustained damage from the incident with Hulkenberg on Lap 1.
Lap 6 sees the stewards raising the black and orange flag at Sainz Jr to get the team to bring the driver in to fix something that has come loose on the back of the Toro Rosso. Alonso, Kvyat, Sainz Jr, Verstappen and Massa are battling each other on the track for fifth place.
Both of the Mercedes drivers also had to deal with ongoing pleas from the pitwall to manage brakes, a command that would go on to continue throughout the entire race. Despite this, nothing much changed during the first round of stops. Ricciardo and Hamilton both stopped on Lap 15, the Red Bull for super softs, Hamilton for softs. A lap later Rosberg made his own switch to softs.
Rosberg then continued to build his lead throughout the second stint, while Ricciardo, on the softer tyre, pulled away from Hamilton. Not that Hamilton was left by himself to run his own race; by the time the laps ticked into the mid-20s he had Raikkonen, who stopped for super softs two laps later then Hamilton right on his gearbox.
On Lap 32, the second round of stops kicked into life when Ricciardo (having just lost a bunch of time on the lap before) fired into the lane to make a second and seemingly final tyre stop for the soft tyre. Rosberg then quickly responded a lap later for new softs as well, followed in by Raikkonen, who a couple of corners earlier had barged past Hamilton for P3.
Then Hamilton made his final stop a lap later with an ordinary in-lap costing him dearly as he dropped 19s behind Rosberg and the best part of seven seconds behind Raikkonen in third. With the race carrying on as it did in the first half, nothing much changed on the track (via an epic battle between Verstappen and Kvyat fighting for track position until Lap 39), when Hamilton was told to 'switch to Plan B'. His pace improved straight away and he quickly closed the gap down to Raikkonen.
On Lap 45 'Plan B' came into effect with Hamilton diving into the pits for a set of used super softs. Ferrari called their bluff very quickly by bringing in Raikkonen in a lap later for ultra softs. It gave the Briton track position with Hamilton charging back into third as Raikkonen exited the pit lane.
Ricciardo himself made the same move a lap later and switched to a three-stopper with another set of super softs. It put him 30-odd seconds behind the leader, but with plenty of pace left until the end of the race. And boy did it get close at the end of the race.
Ricciardo closed to within four-tenths of the leading Mercedes in what was a grandstand finish nobody would have predicted at half distance. Behind the top two, Raikkonen never recovered from being caught out by Hamilton on the quick switch to a three-stopper as behind the top four Kevin Magnussen tried his best to pass the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat but could not manage to close the gap in time.
But it was Nico Rosberg won the Singapore GP for the first time in his career at his 200th GP start, his eighth win of the season and gaining the lead of the Championship from Hamilton to carry a point advantage into the next GP in Malaysia.
He finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in a fantastic second place who was 0.488 seconds behind him and ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in a great third place who finished 8.038 seconds behind Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen ended the race in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Max Verstappen in sixth place, Fernando Alonso in seventh place, Sergio Perez in eighth place, Daniil Kvyat in ninth place and Kevin Magnussen who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.
Esteban Gutierrez ended the race just out of the points in eleventh place 1 lap down on Rosberg. But he did finish ahead of Felipe Massa in twelfth place, Felipe Nasr in thirteenth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in fourteenth place and Jolyon Palmer in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Pascal Wehrlein finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place and Esteban Ocon in eighteenth place. Jenson Button, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean did not finish the race.
The classification for the Singapore GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.55:48.950
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.408s
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 8.038s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 10.219s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 27.694s
6. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.11.197s
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.29.198
8. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.51.062s
9. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.51.557s
10. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.59.952
11. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1lap
12. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1lap
13. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
14. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1lap
15. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
16. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1 lap
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
18. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 2 laps
19. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
20. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, Not Classified
21. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not Classified
22. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, Did not start
Nico Rosberg now leads the Driver's Championship with 273 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 265 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 179 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fourth place with 153 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fifth place with 148 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 129 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 70 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 66 points, Nico Hulkenberg is in ninth place with 46 points and Felipe Massa is in tenth place with 41 points.
Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 538 points, Red Bull is in second place with 316 points, Ferrari is in third place with 301 points, Force India is in fourth place with 112 points, Williams is in fifth place with 111 points, McLaren is in sixth place with 54 points, Toro Rosso is in seventh place with 47 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 7 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
