Cool Hamilton thrives in Singapore heat

Lewis Hamilton won the Singaporean Grand Prix in imperious fashion after going against the grain to snatch pole during qualifying and then executing the perfect race a day later.

The Mercedes driver extended his championship lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to 40 points with only 150 to fight for in the remaining six races.

In a track which was said to favour the Red Bulls and the Ferraris, Hamilton turned the tables to put himself firmly in contention to take a fifth drivers' championship of his stellar career, and one that will set him apart from Vettel as both are level on four.

Hamilton was on the front row with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with Vettel in third and behind him, Hamilton's teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

At the start, the Brit made a good start easily keeping Verstappen at bay.

Vettel had a better start than Verstappen and tried to overtake the Dutchman on the outside but Verstappen defended aggressively going into Turn One.

Vettel knew that a collision with Verstappen would have severely scuttled his championship bid and so he eased to give Verstappen the advantage even though the German had approached the turn slightly ahead of the Red Bull.

The Ferrari would, however, not trail the Red Bull for long as seconds later, Vettel overtook Verstappen along Raffles Boulevard just before the deployment of the safety car due to a collision between the two Force Indias.

Esteban Ocon's race lasted for less than half a minute as his teammate, Sergio Perez, hit him coming out of Turn Three to send the French driver into the barriers.

The safety car was called in at the end of the fourth lap, putting Vettel in prime position to take advantage of the resumption by trying to pip Hamilton for the lead.

Hamilton, however, had an excellent restart and got beyond Vettel's DRS range within that lap.

Two laps later when DRS was enabled, Vettel had gained on Hamilton and was within a second of the race leader. Hamilton was able to stretch the gap once again even as Verstappen also got right behind Vettel, but the German was able to stay clear.

On the 13th lap, Ferrari pitted Vettel hoping for an undercut against the Mercedes.

On that very lap that Vettel pitted, Hamilton broke the track record when he lapped in 1 minute, 44.403 seconds.

There were two pitting options for the race, pit once, put on softs and go till the end of the race or pit to put on ultrasofts and then pit a second time later in the race. Ferrari opted for the latter option.
Hamilton was called in to pit two laps later and took on softs.

He re-emerged ahead of Vettel who was stuck behind Perez. Two laps later, Vettel passed Perez and was keen to hunt Hamilton but the Mercedes had opened up a considerable gap.

Verstappen was called in and when he came out, he just managed to muscle his way and stay ahead of Vettel. With that sequence of events, Vettel saw his opportunity to win the race fade as he lacked the pace to pass Hamilton and Verstappen, even though in theory, he was on a faster tyre compound.

Soon after the halfway point, Perez came into contact with the Williams of Sergey Sirotkin. The Mexican was given a drive-through penalty that demoted him to last position.

It was just not his day nor Force India's. Hamilton, meanwhile, got a scare as Verstappen was able to slash a 3-second gap and even attempt to overtake the race leader as the Brit was trying to make his way past back-markers who were racing.

As soon as Hamilton cleared them, he restored the gap to the Red Bull. Vettel's chance to win the race had all but evaporated due to an erroneous pit stop strategy coupled with the difficulty of overtaking at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. He was however able to limit the damage by nursing the ultrasofts till the end of the race without losing further position.

He finished the race 39.9 seconds behind Hamilton.

Akin to Eliud Kipchoge, who broke the men's marathon record in Berlin just hours before the action in Singapore, it was a day to remember for Haas' Kevin Magnussen who set a new lap record of one minute, 41.905 seconds to ensure that it was not only the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls that had something to boast about.

Starting in 11th position, McLaren's Fernando Alonso, even with his power-deficient car, was able to finish seventh, a testament to the bountiful talent the sport will lose when he exits the Formula One scene at the end the year.