Far too often this season Hamilton’s accidents have been a talking point, and
so it will prove again after this race in the wake of another collision with
Felipe Massa.
The Brazilian yesterday suggested Hamilton “didn’t use his mind again”
after their minor skirmish in qualifying when the Briton frustratedly barged
his way past the crawling Ferrari.
Massa’s remark carried weight bearing in mind Hamilton was given a
drive-through penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix for crashing into his rival.
So when Hamilton came up behind Massa on lap 12, after the latter had managed
to stay ahead in the first round of pit stops as they had come in together,
the inevitable happened.
From a failed pass, Hamilton attempted to duck in behind Massa at one of the
corners, only to turn the left corner of his front wing in on the right-rear
tyre of the Ferrari.
In causing a puncture, it came as no surprise when the stewards announced an
investigation into the matter, and even less of a shock when they handed him
a drive-through penalty, his fifth of the year.
After 15 laps Hamilton had dropped to 19th having pitted three times – once
for tyres, once for a new front wing, and once for serving the penalty.
Ahead of him, Vettel again served as a shining example of how to execute the
perfect race, keeping his cool even when he saw a 19 -second lead evaporate
courtesy of Schumacher’s smash on lap 30.
At that stage Vettel had victory in the bag, only for Schumacher to plough
into the back of Sauber’s Sergio Perez as he ran too close behind the
Mexican.
Unlike Webber’s crash into the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus in the
European Grand Prix in Valencia last season when the Australian did a full
somersault, Schumacher narrowly avoided also flipping.
Instead, the 42-year-old came down with force on all four wheels before
smashing nose first into a barrier at the right-handed turn eight.
For the fourth consecutive year since the inception of what has become one of
the best and most spectacular events on the calendar, the safety car was
brought into play.
When it made its exit, and with the majority of the field making a dash into
the pits for fresh rubber, there was a hope Vettel would be caught.
But instead he again opened up a comfortable cushion that only in the dying
stages was threatened when Button closed to 3.9secs with three laps
remaining.
A gaggle of backmarkers, though, scuppered any hope of a challenge in the
dying laps, leaving Vettel to again take the plaudits and the acclaim from a
packed grandstand at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Paul di Resta secured his best result of his debut campaign with sixth,
executing a perfect two-stop strategy after a gamble by Force India in
starting him on the more durable soft tyre compared to the faster
supersofts.
Behind the Scot, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was seventh, followed by Adrian Sutil
in his Force India, Massa and Perez.
Leading Final Positions after Race (61 Laps): 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger)
Red Bull 1hr 59mins 06.757secs, 2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:59:08.494, 3
Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:59:36.036, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2:00:02.206, 5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 2:00:14.523, 6 Paul di Resta
(Gbr) Force India 2:00:57.824, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP at 1 Lap, 8
Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India at 1 Lap, 9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari at 1
Lap, 10 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari at 1 Lap, 11 Pastor Maldonado
(Ven) Williams at 1 Lap, 12 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1
Lap, 13 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams at 1 Lap, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn)
Sauber-Ferrari at 2 Laps, 15 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault at 2 Laps, 16 Heikki
Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 at 2 Laps, 17 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault at 2
Laps, 18 Jerome d’Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing at 2 Laps, 19 Daniel
Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 at 4 Laps, 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 at 4
Laps, 21 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 5 Laps