VETTEL WINS, LEWIS OUT OF PICTURE, JENSON STILL STANDING
Sebastien Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton. A familiar group of drivers, in fact the same group of drivers that stayed in last year's title race till Brazil last year. Except this time around, one driver out of the that group has dominated the rest all season and coming into the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay circuit, Sebastien Vettel had his first chance to wrap up the world championship. If Jenson finished in the top two, he'd stay in the title race, ditto if Lewis won it. Lewis needed to finish top nine just to have a chance of staying in the picture. Other than that, it was just a case of seeing what the hell happened!
Qualifying saw both McLarens look very smooth in Q1 and all three Brits survived that opening with ease, Petrov being the biggest name to fail to make the grade. Even better than that, all three Brits made it through to Q3 with Barrichello the biggest name to fail to make it out of Q2. Well Jenson was the first to set a time in Q3 and when Lewis beat that it looked like it was going to be a dream qualifying session for McLaren, slight problem, Vettel had other ideas...and no one was ablwe to stop him from picking up his fourth pole in a row. Webber grabbed P2 to complete the fifth all-Red Bull front row of the season. Jenson had to settle for P3, Lewis P4. Di Resta would start from P10.
Di Resta finished the race in 6th place - his best finish of his rookie season so far and what would prove to be the first time three Brits have finished in the top 6 since Belgium '99 when David Coulthard won the race, Eddie Irvine grabed 3rd and Damon Hill 6th! In the present day, the other two Brits still finished ahead of the Scottish rookie - in theory, with that top five spot Lewis could still have remained in the title picture. However, Vettel also finished in the top five.
As for Lewis, well he had a disasterous start, dropping down to 8th. Credit to him he quickly took care of Schumacher and Rosberg to grab 6th but then messed up big time when trying to take Massa and both cars took damage. Lewis was then blamed for the incident and had to take a drive through as well as a new front wing and dropped down to 16th. No one at the back end of the grid was going to get in his way though he was left to rue the tangle with Massa and was forced to settle for 4th. That in itself would have been enough to keep him in the title picture but not only did Jenson finish ahead of him but so did Vettel...and that was all the reigning world champion needed to deny his 2008 counterpart his second title. Lewis's frustration over the way this season has gone is crystal clear, I just hope he can get his head straight for next year.
As for Jenson well, he had a much smoother race and took Webber immediately to grab 2nd, and after that, things went very smooth for the 2009 world champion but not spectacular. McLaren in the meantime were banking on a safety car and sure enough, one showed up. However Jenson wasn't able to take advantage of it and found himself back to square one. Then in the last stages of the race there seemed to be an opportunity and Jenson charged after the leader but it proved to be too little too late. Jenson had to settle for 2nd...but given that that was all he needed to stay in the title race, he was more than happy to do so, a reward for another of his solid drives.
Once again though, the race ultimately belonged to one man. Vettel cruised his way from the front of the grid and the fact that he got so little time on camera after that tells you all you need to know. When the safety car came out, his rivals hoped that he'sd be back to square one...only for the reigning world champion to catch them with their pants down! Then he appeared to slow up near the end. Complacency? He's not going to care, he didn't break under the late pressure and collected his third win in a row. He is still not yet this year's world champion but let's face it, the odds of him losing the title are getting slimmer than ever. You never know though...
Anyway, bottom line, the championship now looks like this. Vettel remains in the lead on 309 points. Jenson moves up to 2nd on 185. Further down, Lewis drops to 5th on 168, out of the title picture and the best he can hope for now is 2nd.
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