Hamilton solid winner in Singapore

For a moment we thought we could witness a duel of titans between Lewis Hamilton et Sebastian Vettel on the streets of Singapore. 3rd on the grid at the Marinay Bay circuit, the German knows he must act quickly and clear the obstacle Max Verstappen. He accomplished this skillfully just before the appearance of the Safety Car, launched on the track after contact between the two Force Indias in the first sequence, Esteban Ocon being sent into the wall by an agitated Sergio Pérez this Sunday evening.

But mistakenly believing that Hamilton is reporting rapid degradation of its Hyper-Soft tires, Vettel and Ferrari attempt an early stop and the German starts again on Ultra-Soft. One loop later, the pilot Mercedes stops to cover any new Safety Car and calmly leaves in front of its championship rival with the Tendre compound.

Seb's misfortunes are not over as Verstappen manages to recover second place from him thanks to a quicker stop and a muscular exit from the pits. Games are made.

Despite some scares when taking a lap from latecomers involved in ragpicker fights, Hamilton controlled the race and the gap with the Red Bull and the cutting-edge Ferrari behind him. Their respective teammates – Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Räikkönen, and Daniel Ricciardo – complete a top 6 without surprise.

Taking advantage of a staggered strategy with a longer first stint, Fernando Alonso (McLaren) and Carlos Sainz (Renault) took solid 7th and 8th places, getting the better of the drivers qualified in the first 10 but forced to start with the Hyper-Soft rubber.

Charles Leclerc celebrates his promotion to Ferrari with a return to the points with 9th place for Sauber, while Nico Hulkenberg allows Renault to place its two cars in the Top 10. The Losange gives itself a little breathing space in the Manufacturers' ranking since neither Haas, nor Force India manage to garner units under the floodlights of Marina Bay.

Author of his 69th career victory, Hamilton is now 40 points ahead of Vettel with six races to go. The next round of the world championship Formula 1 will take place in two weeks in Sochi with the Russian Grand Prix, the 16th event of the season.

Find the report of the Singapore GP produced by our special correspondents in issue 2183 of AUTOhebdo, on sale Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.