After touring around at the back for just 13 laps, before retiring with an
electrical problem which became apparent before the race had even begun,
Rosberg was crestfallen. “It was the toughest day for me this year,” he said
on Sunday night. “Even worse than Silverstone [when he retired from the lead
with a gearbox failure]. Everything was all over the place.
“It is clear reliability is the point we need to focus the most on. At the
moment I’m just disappointed with today, and I want to dig in with the team
to try and understand what went wrong.
“It’s tough not even leaving the grid. I was hoping the team could fix it
[after the race had started] because it was going on and off, sometimes
working, sometimes not. There’s no point in shouting, it’s a reliability
issue, and it’s happened again.”
While delighted with his seventh victory of the season, and his 29th in all,
Hamilton, to his credit, admitted he would have much preferred to win the
kind of classic duel the stunning Singapore setting deserved. So would the
thousands in the grandstands and the millions watching around the world,
rather than the mostly-soporific affair they were treated to.
The Briton, who drove comfortably throughout but had to overtake Sebastian
Vettel in the closing stages following an untimely safety car, said: “It
would have been a really hardcore race if Nico had been at the front, as we
clearly had the pace. Of course, it’s not an ideal result with Nico
retiring, so that shows we still have work to do to get on top of
reliability. I was dreaming it [this result] last night but you never really
think it’s going to happen.”
Lauda, the Mercedes F1 chairman, conceded that the team’s reliability record
in 2014 – on a par with that of Red
Bull who could barely make it to the end of the pit-lane in
pre-season – was not befitting of the car’s dominance, still evident on
Sundayy even after the closest qualifying session of the year on Saturday.
“I’m happy for Lewis – he did an incredible race,” Lauda said. “But Nico’s car
virtually stopped, which is annoying. These things should not happen. We
need to get the cars reliable. This is what we are here for. We need to work
harder on this.”
Mercedes’s rather un-German dependability denied Hamilton the sort of heroic
victory he enjoys most, but there were others to fill the breach. Kevin
Magnussen, the young Dane in his rookie year, showed a Viking spirit well
beyond his years.
Towards the end of this gruelling two-hour affair, his McLaren began to
dangerously overheat. He tried putting his arms out of the car under the
safety car, driving one-handed, but it barely helped. A driver’s usual
source of relief – his drinks bottle – was boiling hot, scalding his mouth.
Magnussen finished the race, but had to be taken to the doctor, before lying
on an ice-towel to cool his bruised back. Éric Boullier, McLaren’s racing
director, commended the 21 year-old’s “fighting spirit”. On a day in which
Jenson Button retired from a promising position, Magnussen and the team were
rewarded with the final championship point on offer. It is unquestionably
the hardest he will ever earn.
Elsewhere, it was left to the Red Bulls on this hazy evening to take it to
Hamilton. Once Rosberg had finally surrendered on lap 13, after struggling
to overtake even the Marussia of Max Chilton so wounded was his car, his
team-mate seemed to have it all under control. He got away well, while
Vettel scythed past Daniel Ricciardo, who he has been in the shade of all
year.
It seemed as if it would remain a procession, but the inevitable safety car
which came on lap 31, after Adrian Sutil and Sergio Pérez tangled, changed
all that. Hamilton now had to build a gap all over again, and was sounding
increasingly agitated.
He eventually pitted on lap 51, with Vettel now in the lead. Despite his
worry, it took just a lap to make the decisive move, cantering to the
chequered flag. Rosberg could only watch on from the pit wall as his
championship lead was wiped out at a stroke.