It was critical for Ferrari to take the victory under the lights in Singapore, but it would not work in their favour at the FORMULA 1 2018 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX. Lewis Hamilton further strengthened his championship lead, putting the title further out of reach.
When the race began, Lewis Hamilton got away well from pole position, as did Sebastian Vettel from P3 on the grid. Vettel challenged Max Verstappen in the first corner but couldn’t get the move done. He attacked again down the long turn 6 straight, with Vettel’s Ferrari power helping him get by the Red Bull. The move was completed just moments before the safety car was deployed.
The safety car was a result of a crash between the two Force India drivers in the first corner. Esteban Ocon got a good run on his teammate in the first corners, putting himself along the outside of Sergio Pérez in the third corner. Pérez ran Ocon out of the space, putting Ocon into the wall after minor contact. Pérez claimed that he did not see his teammate on the outside. The stewards investigated the incident but ruled that it was a racing incident and no further action was required.
The race resumed after four laps under the safety car. It was a clean restart, but there was a sizable gap between all the cars when they crossed the line. The tyre conservation period of the race began.
On lap 13, Hamilton began increasing his speed and the rest of the race leaders responded. The 1 second gap that separated each of the top three drivers increased to 2 seconds and then 3 seconds. It was Vettel who was the first to pit, diving into the pit lane on lap 14. He traded his hypersoft tyres for a set of ultrasoft compound tyres, which Pirelli predicted would be the compound of choice for the two-stop strategy.
Hamilton responded the following lap, opting for the soft compound tyre. Although it was a slower tyre than the one that Ferrari fitted for Vettel, it would give the Mercedes a comfortable one-stop strategy. He came out well ahead of Vettel and, to make matters worse for Vettel, the Force India of Pérez separated the Ferrari and Mercedes. Vettel was able to get by the Force India, although it lost him some time in his chase of Hamilton.
On lap 17, Verstappen pitted. Despite a slow pit stop, he came out of the pits side-by-side with Vettel in turn three. It was Verstappen who made it out ahead, critically hurting Vettel’s chances of challenging Hamilton for a crucial race victory.
While the race at the front of the pack was not really materializing into much, there was an interesting battle for P13 between Sergio Pérez, Sergey Sirotkin and Nico Hülkenberg. The battle turned bitter on lap 34. Pérez found himself on the outside of Sirotkin in turn 17. On the short straight heading to turn 18, Pérez turned into the Williams, giving himself a rear puncture and damaging Sirotkin’s car. Hülkenberg benefited from the incident, moving up to P12. Pérez was later given a drive through penalty for the collision.
A few laps later, the same flock of cars caused some issues for Hamilton. Sirotkin was battling with Romain Grosjean. He locked up, forcing the Haas driver wide. This slowed the duo up, slowing Hamilton who was behind them and attempting to lap them. The scrap between the Haas and Williams continued, allowing Verstappen to get right to the gearbox of Hamilton. He looked up of the inside of Hamilton, but there was not enough space to safely make an overtaking maneuver. Once Hamilton and Verstappen were able to sneak by the battle, Hamilton resumed his comfortable race lead. Grosjean was given a five second penalty for ignoring blue flags.
Kimi Räikkönen launched a late-race challenge for P4, chasing down Bottas. He was within DRS zone but was not able to get the overtake done. Hamilton took a comfortable victory, extending his World Drivers’ Championship lead over Vettel and moving closer to his fifth championship title.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
