F1: Hamilton Beats Verstappen To Win Singapore GP; Vettel Finished Third

Lewis Hamilton took a flawless win in the 2018 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, as Sebastian Vettel finished third despite a near chance at victory thanks to strategic blunder. Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen finished second in an exhilarating ride. The Mercedes driver crossed the chequered flag with a lead of 8.961s over Verstappen, while Vettel finished third by a massive gap of 39.945s over the race leader. With yet another win under his belt, Hamilton extends his championship lead by 41 points over Vettel.

(Hamilton led the Singapore GP starting from the pole)

The opening lap saw Hamilton on pole and the Briton put this advantage to good use and held on to the lead right from the start with Verstappen following suit. However, an incredible start for Vettel ensured that the Red Bull driver could feel the heat in P2. Force India's Esteban Ocon, who started ninth on the grid was out of contention after the third turn as teammate Sergio Perez nudged the driver on the Outside wall of Turn 2. The incident saw him out of the race bringing out the safety car, a reminder of the opening lap from last year's race albeit far subtle.  

Meanwhile, Vettel passed Verstappen on the opening just before the safety car was called out. The safety car continued on the track until Lap 4 with Hamilton still in the lead. As the safety car made it back to the pits, the top order continued to remain the same with Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, Perez and Romain Grosjean following the race leaders. Fernando Alonso, who started 11th on the grid gained two positions with the absence of Ocon and having overtaken Nico Hulkenberg.

(Esteban Ocon crashed on the opening lap after being nudged by teammate Sergio Perez)

At Lap 14, Vettel was the first one to pit in favour of ultrasoft tyres, a move that turned out to be disastrous for the German. The driver joined back behind Perez and stayed there for another two laps, as Hamilton extended his dominance at the front. Lewis and Max pitted on the successive laps to swap to soft tyres with a one stop strategy. Hamilton was back in the lead after the first set of pitstops with a lead of 3 seconds and extended the gap to nearly 9 seconds by the end of the race.

While the top three racers remained unchanged for most of the race, a battle for fourth was seen in the final stages between Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Bottas. With Bottas in fourth place and one second clear of the Ferrari and Red Bull, the drivers could do little to challenge the W09. Raikkonen finished the race fifth, while Ricciardo took sixth nearly a second later.

(Valtteri Bottas finished fourth, ahead of Raikkonen and Ricciardo)

Alonso climbed up to sixth at the end of the race after a long stint on ultrasofts and later moving to softs. Sainz finished eighth followed by Charles Leclerc in ninth place. Hulkenberg managed to take P10, after Perez was pushed down to P16 after trying to pass Sergey Sirotkin on Lap 33 and took a puncture to his left tyre and a drive through penalty as well.

Finishing 18th was Kevin Magnussen who surprisingly set the fastest lap in the race, showing that the race was very much about tyre management. Hamilton is has extended his lead by 10 points over Vettel in the championship and that is sure to concern the German, especially with only six races to go.