Hamilton takes points lead after Rosberg drops out

2014 Singapore Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers’ championship for only the second time this season after winning the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s path to victory was cleared of a significant obstacle when team mate Nico Rosberg was struck by a gearbox problem before the race began. He eventually started from the pit lane, but retired during his first pit stop.

But Hamilton had work to do late in the race when his final pit stop dropped him behind the chasing Sebastian Vettel. Following a mid-race Safety Car period the Red Bull driver ran to the chequered without a further pit stop, and crossed the chequered flag with Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso less than two seconds behind.

Felipe Massa took fifth but team mate Valtteri Bottas dropped out of the points when his tyres gave up on the final lap. That allowed Jean-Eric Vergne into sixth place – a position he kept despite being given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Also promoted by the demise of Bottas was Sergio Perez, who triggered the Safety Car period by losing his front wing in a collision with Adrian Sutil. Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen followed Perez home in the points.

2014 Singapore Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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84 comments on “Hamilton takes points lead after Rosberg drops out”

  1. Formula Indonesia (@)
    21st September 2014, 15:27

    That wouldn’t an easy victory for Hamilton if Rosberg car alive, or maybe Nico could win. But anyway still a decent job by Hamilton. JEV was superb this race, he showed he also deserve Red Bull 2nd spot

    1. Whilst I can’t argue, the same was true in reverse in Australia – that wouldn’t have been an easy victory for Rosberg. Best thing is we’ve now got an almighty scrap for the WDC and the clock has pretty much been re-set to the start of the season!

      Having said I can’t argue though, I will point out it wasn’t all that easy – post Safety Car he basically gets told by the team to reel off 20 qualifying laps in a row! Got to be impressed with how he pulled that out. Also goes to show just how quick that Merc still is (and yes, I know the tyres were different and all of that, but he grabbed 35-40s of time in about 22 laps).

      Agree about JEV too – awesome finish to the race for him.

      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        21st September 2014, 15:37

        Well actually this test Rosberg mentality is he good enough to be a WDC

        1. Yup…can’t wait for the next round :)

      2. post Safety Car he basically gets told by the team to reel off 20 qualifying laps in a row!

        He wasn’t even doing qualifying laps.

        I spent some time watching his in-car feed during that part of the race & he was still cruising, Doing a lot of lift & coast, trying to manage his tyres & not getting too close to the walls.

        1. Really? I didn’t see much evidence of that myself, but if that was the Merc cantering (as opposed to a full-on Qualifying gallop) then it’s even quicker than I thought!

          And all this at a track where the Red Bull was meant to make them work hard…maybe Suzuka will be closer?

  2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    21st September 2014, 15:29

    I would really love to hear what will be said by the consp. theory fans who kept claiming Ros was being favored by Merc.

    1. That someone found out about their plot and they’ve had to even the score! ;)

      (And please: nobody start and argument…that was a joke!)

      1. That someone pressed the reset button to even the score.

    2. Formula Indonesia (@)
      21st September 2014, 15:45

      TBH Merc actually never favoured 1 driver this season, but sometimes Nico and Lewis fans are just over-reacting

      1. You’re wrong their Ros has lost the team. Toto was smiling unlike when Hamilton retires he says im so sad for Lewis when they showed Ros problems when they cut back on Toto had a big grin. I am a Ham fan and screamed conspiracy but since Spa happend he as lost the team and i don’t blame them. He got greedy had everything going for him all year he should not have been so desperate. Ham has been the better racer this year and now he is having some clean qually’s it is going to be hard for Nico. 7 wins for Hamilton unbelievable with his bad luck this year.

        1. Formula Indonesia (@)
          21st September 2014, 16:03

          Yeah because you Hamilton fans, even though I’m Rosberg I still conglaturate Lewis, you also can look at my comments above that I’m not really support Rosberg at this point. i say it is a fair fight for the next 5 races. We’ll see who better on last few races

        2. Ros has lost the team

          Utter fantasy. His car broke down, that’s all.

          1. No Keith, you just don’t understand, Nikki and Toto are in trouble with the board for spending all that money bringing Hamilton onbord when it is obvious that German driver Rosberg could have done the job, so for Nikki and Toto to keep their jobs Hamilton must win the WDC. Lookout Hollywood, here I come. @keithcollantine

          2. @hohum or a paycut for Hamilton next contract, right?

          3. Utter fantasy…

            You just described all of Dan’s posts, ever

  3. Well done Lewis, let Nico feel the sting of unreliability for a change. Things sure do turn quickly in F1 this season, it was doom and gloom for Hamilton after Nico ran into him at Spa. Now, hopefully, Mercedes will give both Nico and Lewis reliable cars to the end and the championship will be decided by who is best in the final races, not who has the better reliability.

  4. Hamilton has led the championship only 4 times sine 2011.

    1. But he has led the championship……..

    2. Since Belgium 2010 to be precise.

  5. Great race at Singapore. I was there, watching the race live, and the whole atmosphere and the fireworks at the end just made it a spectacular race & experience for me. I feel for Rosberg though, but at least they have the same number of race retirements. Feel for Alonso too, he easily could’ve gotten second if the safety car hadn’t stayed out for so long, or if Ferrari put him on the same strategy as both Red Bulls.

    P.S. Did anybody feel as though this race was almost a carbon-copy of last year’s race? But with different people of course.

    1. I think that Lewis has had one more DNF to date than Nico, but I could be wrong.

      1. Would that be the braking issue whereby Lewis drove the car a certain way and Nico drove it a different way and the car simply didn’t appreciate Hamilton?

      2. No. Hamilton = Australia & Canada. Rosberg = Britain & Singapore

        1. Touche. Forgot about Spa.

          1. Hamilton has 3 DNFs and Rosberg now has 2.

  6. Im not really a fan, but Im quite happy for Seb today!

    1. True, good to see that he is not totally dominated by the new kid (although it is hard not to admire what RIC has been able to do).

      1. Ricciardo had a problem with the car though. Still he was right on Vettel’s tail.

  7. Sem (@05abrahamsemere)
    21st September 2014, 15:47

    Vettel finally beats Ric, yet even on a bad weekend for Ric, he finishes less than a second behind Vettel. Vettel knows this boy is only going to get better and better. For the Vettel fans who are excited by this result, remember this is Vettel’s favourite track and I expect normal service to resume in Suzuka. Let’s not forget, Ric has been smashing Vettel all season.

    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      21st September 2014, 15:51

      Suzuka actually Vettel strongest track over the whole calendar

    2. @05abrahamsemere

      this is Vettel’s favourite track and I expect normal service to resume in Suzuka

      Errr no. Suzuka is.

    3. I’m concerned by Vettel to be truthful. I found it very difficult to like him at the start, but he’s grown on me, not just this season, but for a couple of years. I worry though, that someone who has won 4 WDCs in a row will have that incredible achievement devalued because he doesn’t seem able to adapt his driving style to the new regulations.

      Hopefully next year, with a better Renault engine, RB will be closer to the leading cars (in terms of time) and it’ll be a better championship. But I also hope Vettel manages to learn how to get the best out of the car – otherwise a man who is clearly a remarkably talented driver risks becoming under appreciated.

    4. Michael Brown (@)
      21st September 2014, 17:52

      Bad weekend for Ricciardo? Vettel had missed a lot of running in practice.

      1. But Vet got the biggest advantage in this weekend that he had a clean view ahead at the start after Ros car failure.

  8. So much Justice today and i loved it. Lets be clear, Hamilton has been fine since his first bit of luck in Silverstone. Look at Germany and Hungary both uualifying incidents. How do we know Ham does not get pole and win? So people saying his car is so fast he will be on poidum, it does not account for the points he would lost.

    Look at Hungary Ham is mighty their he would have won if he was on pole Ros was too bad overtaking cars he should have still won even with the saftey car. Then we come to Spa Ros has brain fade and Monza Ros cracks. Ham had pole yesterday so is Ros cracking? It sure looked like it in the 3 races before today, Hungary Spa and Monza. Ros does no know how good he as had it this year everything has went for him only been behind once in the championship before today. 7 wins for Hamiton now take that Nico and he as finshed 1 extra race.

    1. At least Rosberg wasn’t whining about wanting to retire and tried his best until the car failed him totally.

      1. Yeah, because wasting the engine for nothing was a wonderful idea.

      2. Yeah Nico didn’t say much did he, I guess not being as tactically aware as his teammate, just being a victim, until he was in the pits and giving in waving his arms refusing to drive the horrid car any more!

        /joke :)

      3. Well Nico had the whole race to make up and given the 100% chance of a safety car here if the systems sorted themselves out he could have finished higher with one less stop. Lewis on the other hand did about 40 laps before asking the team whether he should retire to save his engine. Remember Lewis still has an engine that burned in Hungary

        1. I remember Lewis asking way before lap 40 to retire the car…

          1. @casanachi and he made a good call.

          2. @jcost yes it was a good call for his WDC hopes but I understand why the team made him stay out longer. It was a clear case of balancing the team’s need to maximise points if there was a safety car for example and the driver’s ambition.

          3. @casanachi the problem is, many people try to link his call for retiring the car with giving up which doesn’t make much sense once he was asking to retire the car in order to avoid future problems. One could argue that a 10 place grid for Lewis could not be very harmful because a good start with their performance advantage still could be converted into a good haul of points starting from P11/P12 because Hamilton himself has proven that he can get to the podium from the pits, but his call at Spa was perfectly fine for me.

      4. On a track that Safety Cars are common, and is the longest race of the year there was no reason to retire the car so early.

        Hamilton almost lost the race because of a SC. If the team could fix the car car on his pit, he would be back at points contention with the fastest car of the track. Different from Hamilton on Spa. Which was a physical damage and the team couldn’t do nothing about it.

        Awful comparison.

        1. No, it’s a valid comparison. You see, the team got the telemetry. They said the engine was fine. But Lewis just practically gave up. I never been so disappointed with Lewis in the race. He was constantly nagging the team to retire the car. Yes, he said that he wanted to save the engine, but again, the team didn’t think he need to save it. Have you seen Lewis like that? He was always tried his best even when the odds are against him, but that one race really annoyed me. I’m not a Lewis fan, but I want him to do well because it’s realistically going to be a two horse race. I want Nico and Lewis have a close battle. And yes, I’m also not a fan of Nico. My feeling for these two drivers is indifferent, but I certainly want a close battle!
          I don’t mind a driver asking to retire the car, but only if the car is undriveable. Looking at Lewis pace at that time, the car was definitely drivable. If a driver could retire the car just because he wanted to save his engine, then everytime a driver felt it was a hopeless race, maybe he should ask to retire his car because engines are really valuable this season. Maybe at that race Massa should also ask for retiring the car, because he wasn’t going to get into the top 10 anyway, better to save the engine.
          And the problem on Nico car was also a physical problem. Otherwise, they could fix it. Lewis problem was in the body, Nico was in the wiring. Lewis was asking since lap 20 to retire the car even if at that time his pace was good. I’m sure that a lot of other drivers want to drive that damaged Mercedes compared to driving their own car, but Lewis wanted to stop.
          Yeah, maybe my comparison was awful, because it wasn’t an apple to apple comparison, but again, still valid because I’m not comparing the accident itself but the drivers attitude. Just fyi, Lewis was asking to retire on lap 20, which at that time he was the fastest car out there. Nico was hoping that his car would come alive until the car practically stopped, but Lewis wanted to retire while being the fastest. My respond wasn’t about direct comparison, but replying to someone that said Nico cracks and Lewis was just unlucky. In Spa, from my point of view, Lewis was also cracking. At Germany, Lewis was bumping into several drivers, which fortunately nothing really bad happens to him, but definitely had a brain fade when he collided with Jenson. So Lewis also got his fair share of cracking and brain fade.

          1. I’d like to point out all the radio messages we heard today about how Hamilton kept whining (what the heck is whinging??? I see it all over this site!) about his tires and he had to be reassured constantly.

            Nico is the mentally tougher. Lewis needs someone holding his hand. Whatever, this race was terrible but I hope both cars are at their max next week. I enjoy their little scraps.

    2. Yeah you get the feeling that in the last half the championship Nico might have Lewis’ first half luck.

    3. IMHO Nico needs another Hamilton DNF or low points race to get his championship hopes back on track. Lewis is in a happy place and if his car is reliable for the remaining races I think he’s beat Nico.

  9. Well I guess that the six figure fine and public excoriation wasn’t enough for Toto. Nico is apparently going to be screwed for the rest of the year. Nico the new Massa.

    1. I am not sure I follow your Hypothesis – there is absolutely no evidence of Nico being sabotaged by anyone and the season is far from over.

  10. Fernando was on a good charge before the SC.
    But seemed to have just relax after that.

    1. Fikri Harish (@)
      21st September 2014, 17:07

      It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation methinks.
      He could push hard straightaway but he might end up like Bottas or he could try to be smart and wait until both Red Bull’s tyres hit the cliffs and made his move then, which obviously didn’t happen.

      I still think he should’ve gone for the Primes in his third stint. He did it last year, there’s no reason why he wouldn’t be able to do it again.

  11. Wonder if Rosbergs problem was a hurry software upgrade to get het some extra information on the display due to the new rules.

    1. @jdd Toto said on Sky it was the steering column wiring loom, which was within its normal life but developed a fault.

  12. Now that HAM and ROS are even in terms of mechanical failures, ROS is really starting to look like a second tier driver. It is unbelievable that in a car as dominant as the MERC, ROS has only won 4 out of 14 races. This is just one better than RIC who is in a car that is massively down on HP. When HAM showed the true pace of the MERC today, we learned that they have 2 seconds in hand over the red bull (on a high downforce track at that).

    ROS points tally is still helped by (a) Monaco qualifying off (b) giving HAM a puncture and (c) HAM starting at the back twice and if there is some sort of equalization in this regard, HAM would be ahead by miles and nobody would be trying to put ROS in the same category.

    I just hope for good reliability issues going forward and may the men separate themselves from the boys. OH and hoping against a tainted WDC as a result of double points in Abu Dhabi.

    1. Are they equal?

      Lewis
      Race
      Australia
      Canada
      Spa
      Qualifying
      Hungry
      Germany

      Nico
      Race
      Silverstone
      Singapore

      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        21st September 2014, 16:41

        Nico also had bad luck in hungary (safety car) and in Canada he also had the problem but he handle better. Spa was a racing incident

        1. Alonso and Hamilton were behind Rosberg after the SC in Hungary. Yet they finished ahead.

          It wasn’t “bad luck” that cost Rosberg the Hungary win. It was his inability to overtake and even losing 2 places to Alonso and Vergne in the process.

          Although Rosberg also calls his poor braking for turn one in Monza “bad luck”, so I guess it’s just what you define as “luck”. Most people would attribute those situations to skill though (or lack thereof).

          Too bad Rosberg’s car failed. We could have finally witnessed how “easy” it is what Hamilton did in Hungary and Germany. Although Rosberg’s rise back up to the field seemed to have stranded after passing Chilton and being stuck behind Ericsson already.

          Just like he couldn’t get past Vergne in Hungary. So I guess we have enough indication that it’s not really that easy.

          1. Rosberg couldn’t pass anyone in the race because of the electronic issues he was having. Before he retired David Hobbs pointed out that his transmission was changing two gears on the upshift. The video replay confirmed it one lap later. Hamilton had the race and luck on his side today. Toto didn’t have to worry about who would give up the first corner today. Rejoice Brits you won the race and the vote this weekend.

          2. OK fine, and what’s the excuse for Hungary?

        2. Well, Alonso also had the same bad luck on Hungary and finished 2nd.
          This is no excuse.

          The fact is that Rosberg lost Hungary and Belgium for himself. He could have won both races.

      2. I agree with you. They are only equal in terms of DNFs due to mechanical failures. Lewis’ DNF in Spa was due to the puncture Nico gave him and I mentioned this in my post.

    2. I also don’t think the 2 seconds faster was that real, Lewis was pushing while Redbull and Alonso were preserving their tyres

      1. @f1-neil Good point about the 2 second gap but what is undeniable is that if you put ALO or VET in a car as dominant as the MERC, they would probably take at least 50% of the possible wins. ROS has not even won 1/3 of the races. I’m not trying to be rude by calling him second tier but I just don’t see him in the same class as other WC such as ALO, VET & HAM (all things being equal of course).

      2. Besides, there is quite a performance difference between the supersofts that Hamilton was on and the softs that the Red Bulls were on.

  13. If Hamilton wins this championship, amazing ! One of the best drivers – He’ll be the only driver on the grid to win championship with 2 different teams if he manage to achieve which I think he will.

    1. Good point about the 2 second gap but what is undeniable is that if you put ALO or VET in a car as dominant as the MERC, they would probably take at least 50% of the possible wins. ROS has not even won 1/3 of the races. I’m not trying to be rude by calling him second tier but I just don’t see him in the same class as other WC such as ALO, VET & HAM (all things being equal of course).

      1. Ignore my post, replied to wrong one…

    2. If Hamilton wins this championship…he’ll be amazing?! With a car that can finish 2nd on a bad day and much slower teammate?

    3. @functor
      I am not entirely sure I understand what is so significant about winning championships with different teams.

      1. So you’re telling me if Vet goes to Ferrari and wins a WC it is not signifcant?. I think you are very wrong. Same with Alo if he gets one with Ferarri it will be a big thing.

  14. Fikri Harish (@)
    21st September 2014, 16:30

    Is it just me or does anybody else thinks that Martin Brundle and/or EJ should be handling every post-race podium interviews from here on out? They seem to be only ones asking the right questions up there.
    I think that Alonso should’ve yielded his position to Ricciardo after going off at T1 at the start of the race and I’m glad that EJ noticed that too.
    I actually like listening to Hamilton calmly second-guessing his engineers, I definitely wouldn’t call that being paranoid. He needs all the smart he can get if he wants to be more than just a one-time champion after all.
    And Vettel’s KITT comment is pure gold.

    Anyway, it’s a damn shame that after all the promise Ferrari have showed all weekend they ended up a mere fourth and eighth. Alonso was pushing like crazy just before the safety car kicks in, I would’ve thought that after both Alonso and Raikkonen made a surprise visit to the podiums last year, they’d try another two-stopper.
    Oh well, hopefully they could carry their form for the rest of the season.

    And credits to Vergne for making a fool out of the other midpacks there. Kalinda was right, “Losing a job changes you”. Here’s to you, JEV!

    Bring on Suzuka!

    1. What was Vettels Kitt comment?

      1. Fikri Harish (@)
        21st September 2014, 17:13

        I may have misheard this, but EJ was saying how Vettel is some sort of a night rider for being so good at Singapore and Seb replied by saying something along the lines of KITT was great today.

    2. @fihar the problem with Brundle and Jordan is their inclination for “coaching fans” when they decide to express their views through booing and FIA might not like that…

  15. Lovely result. Resets the title battle. Please don’t let it be decided by someone getting screwed at Abu Double.

  16. I liked the shots of seeing Nico on the pit wall, watching the stops.

    I’d love to have known what was going through his mind.

    1. Probably something along the lines of “Please don’t put that left rear tyre on properly”

    2. In fairness to Nico, in the shot of him when Lewis left the pit for the last time he momentarily seemed to be willing him on [to win one assumes].

      Maybe he just saw the justice in what has come to pass..

  17. LOVE this championship, it is brilliant how quickly it turns around from one race to the next.

    Rosberg has got ALOT of work to do to overcome Hamilton now. Lewis is in the zone at the moment and when he is like this he tends to be unstoppable, it normally takes something big like a DNF to stop him.

    This championship is going to be decided by reliability in the end I feel but I don’t see how Rosberg can win it without another Lewis DNF, on raw pace alone he is no match as we’ve seen several times this weekend. If the law of averages evens itself out this season then Rosberg is due at least a bad qualifying before the season finishes too after the two Lewis had at Hungary and Hockenheim.

    Things turn around so quickly though who knows what is going to happen I could be sat here in two weeks time congratulating Rosberg.

    1. Something big like a DNF or someone bringing out the yellow flags in the dying moments of Q3…

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