Singapore Grand Prix 2009

Singapore Grand Prix 2009
25 – 27 September, Singapore

Lewis Hamilton more than made up for his last-lap crash at Monza two weeks ago with a flawless performance under the lights in the Singapore Grand Prix that secured his and McLaren’s second win of the season.

Meanwhile Jenson Button moved a step closer to realising his world title dreams, overcoming a disastrous qualifying session to beat his Brawn GP team-mate and title rival Rubens Barrichello to fifth place and thereby extending his championship lead by one point.

Vettel set off in hot pursuit of Hamilton after an early challenge from Williams’ Nico Rosberg faded, but squandered his hard work when he broke the pit lane speed limit during his second stop for fuel and tyres.

Their rivals’ misfortune will have been music to the ears of both Button and Barrichello who, for much of the race, had laboured unremarkably from grid positions of 11th and ninth respectively.

The pair struggled to make an impression up to the appearance of the safety car following a crash involving Force India’s Adrian Sutil and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld on lap 21.

And while the safety car helped Hamilton, who had just pitted, fellow Englishman Button watched his fuel advantage over a number of rivals, carried over from Saturday’s qualifying, evaporate.

Sutil’s incident with Heidfeld came in Turn 14 on the 20th lap when he tagged the back of Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, which had been holding up a train of cars since the start. As the Force India spun it hit an innocent Heidfeld and both retired. Romain Grosjean was the other retirement, stopping early with suspected brake problems on his Renault.

The result leaves Button on 84 points to Barrichello’s 69 with three races to go, while Vettel remains third with 59 and Webber fourth on 51.5. In the constructors’ stakes, Brawn have 153 points to Red Bull’s 110.5, but McLaren are closing fast on Ferrari with 59 to 62.