Lewis Hamilton needed a miracle at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and luckily for him, he got it at the expense of his biggest title rival Sebastian Vettel.
After getting only the fifth place in the qualifying of the Singapore Grand Prix, the British driver’s chances to win decreased drastically in most betting websites while Vettel, in contrast, commanded both the betting odds and betting tips with the pole position and a fantastic display during the practice and qualifying races.
However, with the German driver crashing out at the start of the night race, the path opened for Hamilton to take the win instead of just doing damage limitation – which was Mercedes’ initial plan in the beginning as Vettel was expected to retake the championship lead.
Despite the heavy rains and a wet track, the race started intensely, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen making great strides to challenge Vettel up front.
Vettel, however, was uncharacteristically reckless as he veered across the track to defend against Verstappen.
Not knowing that his teammate Raikkonen was there, the Ferrari ace left the Red Bull driver nowhere to go, which eventually led to Verstappen and Raikkonen’s cars hitting each other before spinning and crashing with Vettel.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who was in a good position to contend for the podium after a flying start, also got involved in the crash and was forced to retire.
Hamilton managed to avoid the early chaos and pounced on the lead heading into the first corner ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who started third from the grid.
Ricciardo was expected to threaten Hamilton for the title, with the Red Bull having a better pace than Mercedes all weekend. Nonetheless, the 32-year-old Brit gained momentum and began recording fastest laps to leave the Australian four and a half seconds behind in the end.
It was one of the best performances by Hamilton as he overcame the struggles that bugged them all week in Singapore to win and extend his championship lead over Vettel to a mammoth 28 points with six races to go.
Mercedes benefitted the most from the accident as Valtteri Bottas finished third, with only Ricciardo at second denying the team a one-two finish.
Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr., on the other hand, drove magnificently to finish fourth, ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez.
For Ferrari, the race marks the first time ever that they have retired both cars on just the first lap. Now, they will continue the F1 Asia tour in Malaysia where they will hope luck will favour them.
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