Singapore GP 2016: Rosberg holds off Ricciardo by 0.488s

Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix from pole position. At the finish he was just 0.488 seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished third. With overheating brakes and old tyres, Rosberg nursed home a lead that almost completely evaporated over the final 14 laps. According to grandprix.com, it was his third win in a row and his eighth of the season. With Hamilton only third, Rosberg reclaimed the championship lead at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

One car was already missing before the start: Romain Grosjean of the Haas F1 Team was unable to take part. According to Motor Sport Magazine, a fault in the brake-by-wire system could not be repaired in time. He is therefore listed as withdrawn in the results.

Rosberg got away well, with Ricciardo and Hamilton following him. Behind them it was tight: according to grandprix.com, Max Verstappen suffered a clutch problem at the start and barely moved off from 4th place. Trying to get around the slow Red Bull, Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso and Nico Hülkenberg in the Force India made contact. Hülkenberg spun and hit the pit wall. His race was over after zero laps, classified as a collision. “It's extremely disappointing to end my race in the wall after just 50 metres,” he said (quoted by grandprix.com).

At the first corner, Jenson Button in the McLaren and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams also collided. Button damaged his nose, while Bottas picked up a left-rear puncture (Motor Sport Magazine). The Safety Car led the field through the pit lane so the debris could be cleared. The race resumed at the end of the second lap. There appears to have been a dangerous moment: a marshal was still collecting debris at Turn 1 as Rosberg's Mercedes approached at high speed. According to grandprix.com, the FIA later looked into the incident.

After the restart, Rosberg pulled away. The shape of the race had been set after qualifying: Ricciardo and Verstappen started on supersoft tyres, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Nasr on softs, and almost everyone else on ultrasofts (grandprix.com). Early on, Rosberg's race engineer was already radioing warnings about brake temperatures. According to grandprix.com, Hamilton had even bigger brake problems and had to back off. Ferrari apparently told Kimi Räikkönen straight away to push.

In the first round of stops, Rosberg didn't pit until lap 16. As a result, Räikkönen briefly led on lap 17 before stopping himself and handing the lead back to Rosberg. Hamilton remained on the back foot. According to grandprix.com, he ran wide on lap 32 and Räikkönen grabbed 3rd place. Räikkönen then stopped on lap 33, and Hamilton led for one lap on lap 34 before pitting himself.

The fight for 3rd place was decided in the pits. Mercedes switched Hamilton to a three-stop strategy and brought him in on lap 45 for ultrasoft tyres. Ferrari responded a lap later with Räikkönen, but according to the FIA the stop did not go smoothly. The Finn rejoined behind Hamilton and stayed there to the end. For Ferrari, fourth place was a missed chance of a podium.

Hamilton's switch set off a chain reaction. Red Bull brought Ricciardo in for his third stop on lap 47 and sent him out on fresh supersoft tyres. According to the FIA, Mercedes considered pitting Rosberg as well. But with traffic leaving him no clear gap, the lead would have been at risk (Motor Sport Magazine). Rosberg therefore stayed out on the tyres he had fitted on lap 33.

Then it got tight. On lap 49, Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:47.187. According to grandprix.com, he was still 19.0 seconds behind on lap 50, just 7.0 on lap 55 and 2.0 seconds before the final lap. In the final sector both ran into lapped traffic, and Ricciardo only got within DRS range right at the end (FIA). He crossed the line 0.488 seconds short. Rosberg said his tyres had lasted “just right” to the finish (grandprix.com). If you want to understand how this win came about: at the end, Rosberg saved his brakes and tyres exactly as much as he needed to. Toto Wolff, on the other hand, called Hamilton's extra stop a deliberate risk that Mercedes could take with no threat from behind (Motor Sport Magazine).

Winner of the day was Sebastian Vettel. According to Motor Sport Magazine, a rear anti-roll bar link broke on his car in qualifying, so he started from 22nd on the grid. On soft tyres he was able to run a long first stint. According to grandprix.com, he was already up to 13th by lap 10, and with two stops on laps 24 and 42 he fought his way up to 5th place. That's 17 places gained, more than any other driver. Sergio Pérez also drove strongly: after an early stop on lap 1, he made just one more stop on lap 25 and climbed from 17th on the grid to 8th. Kevin Magnussen took the final point for Renault in tenth.

Verstappen lost places with his poor start and, according to the FIA, spent a long time stuck in a pack with Daniil Kvyat. Only in the final third did he make progress again, passing Fernando Alonso along the way, and he eventually finished sixth. Alonso took valuable points for McLaren in seventh, with Kvyat ninth.

Loser of the day was above all Sainz. Apparently because of damage from the melee at the start, he had to pit on lap 7 and dropped from 6th on the grid to 14th. Hülkenberg lost 13 places through the start crash. After their contact at the first corner, neither Button nor Bottas made it to the finish. Button retired after 43 laps with brake problems, Bottas after 35 laps due to overheating. Outside the points, Esteban Gutiérrez, Felipe Massa, Nasr, Sainz, Jolyon Palmer, Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson finished one lap down. Esteban Ocon in the Manor Marussia was eighteenth, two laps down. Ericsson and Nasr remained without points for Sauber.

The win put Rosberg back ahead of Hamilton in the 2016 standings. With 273 points after the 15th round of the season, he was eight points clear of his team-mate (265). Ricciardo consolidated 3rd place on 179 points, ahead of Vettel (153) and Räikkönen (148). Verstappen followed on 129 points.

In the constructors' standings, Mercedes led comfortably with 538 points. Behind them, Red Bull narrowly defended 2nd place on 316 points against Ferrari (301). In the midfield, Force India sat on 112 points, one ahead of Williams (111).

Singapore showed how close the title race had become in the closing stages of the season. Rosberg won for the third time in a row, while Hamilton had been struggling with technical problems and weaker weekends since the summer break. Red Bull had also proven that it could threaten Mercedes on a track with many slow corners.