A near on perfect backdrop of Marina Bay lighting up the night sky, for the first and only night race of the season which could have seen the title won by Sebastian Vettel.
The flood lit lights were on, rain on delay and all 24 cars ready and waiting for the five red lights.
Sebastian Vettel was off to a good start (again) leading the pack while teammate Mark Webber got of to a slower start leaving the door open for Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso to overtake with Lewis Hamilton in fifth.
Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes was lucky to hang on to sixth after bumping over the kerb on Lap 1 however was confirmed over his radio he was ok to keep sixth position.
Lewis Hamilton made several clean cut passes gaining places in the first few laps while the battle for third was on between Webber and Alonso however Alonso was unable to maintain speed and tyre’s dropping off quickly, along with brake temperature problems.
Lap 12 and both Hamilton and Felipe Massa pit the lap before, the Ferrari managed to stay ahead though not for long as Hamilton attempted to overtake, misjudges and tears away the corner of his front wing and in turn puncturing Massa’s right rear tyre.
Hamilton, down in 16th, was handed a driver through penalty for the incident to only see him fight back the positions for the rest of the race.
Rookie Paul di Resta had his best Grand Prix result of the season, who on Lap 16 was up to 3rd but had to surrender his position to the faster car of Alonso however finished the GP in 6th - the best of the cars outside the top three teams.
Schumacher had a frightening near take off from Sergio Perez Sauber as Schumacher tried to overtake, a close mirror image of Webber’s Valencia 2010 take off however Schumacher had a lucky escape not quite going airborne but a high impact crash hitting the barrier; he was ok and got out the car almost instantly.
Following the crash - we did make it to 30 laps - the safety car was out, usually a frequent appearance at street circuits especially in Singapore.
Four laps later and the safety car came in, Vettel was ahead of Button and it stayed that way for the rest of the race. Heikki Kovalainen narrowly missed shunting into Vettel in the pit lane after an unsafe release and towards the end of the race Button was catching Vettel however traffic made sure he ran out of laps and finished 2nd behind the Red Bull in 1st while teammate Webber finished 3rd with Fernando settling for 4th in front of Hamilton.
Jaime Alguersuari crashed out on Lap 56 colliding into the barrier, the safety car was needed at the race continued, other retirements from the race along with Alguersuari and Schumacher were Timo Glock on lap 9 and Jarno Trulli on Lap 47.
Fastest lap: Jenson Button: 1:48.454
Singapore 2011
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The podium
This is from after qualifying but switch Mark and Jenson round and we have the podium order (couldn't find a podium picture when i wanted to)
[Fireworks after the race]
The first fly-away has now passed and we move onto Japan, where, more thank likely, we will see Sebastian Vettel be crowned World Champion and a fitting place it will be... unless he finishes 11th or lower.
Let's hope the rain isn't like last year but if it is, Red Bull will win the boat races too!
Getting up in the early hours of the morning to watch it?!
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