Race Analysis - The finishing start

By Dan Knutson

Seventy percent of the drivers who started from pole position in the first ten editions of the Singapore Grand Prix went on to finish first. Overtaking is so difficult around the city street circuit that qualifying is more than half the battle towards getting a better race result. Indeed, Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes on the pole for this year's race and finished first. Here is how it all unfolded.

MAGIC

Hamilton put in a stunning lap to win his 79th Formula 1 pole position.

"Wow, wow, that was a hardcore qualifying session," he said. "That felt like magic. I don't really know where it came from but it all came together."

CUT IT OUT

Max Verstappen put his Red Bull second on the grid despite engine problems throughout practice and qualifying.

"We had to detune the engine and lost a bit of time there to try to make the drivability better, but it still didn't work like it should do," he said. "On my final run (in Qualifying 3), I tried to push a bit more and I was another two tenths up. Then I arrived to (Turns) 16/17 and when I had to short shift again the engine just cut out, so I had to abort. If it was going to be enough to pole I am not so sure but at least it was going to be closer than three tenths."

NOT SMOOTH

Sebastian Vettel qualified his Ferrari third.

"Qualifying for us wasn't as smooth as it should have been," he said. "Other people obviously have done better than us, and that's why we're third. It's just disappointing that we didn't get the maximum out of our package."

HALF DOZEN

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) rounded out the top half dozen on the grid.

ONE CHANCE NO CHANCE

One of the few chances to grab the lead from Hamilton would be at the start of the 61-lap race. But the other drivers had no chance at passing him in the opening corners.

TRADING PLACES

Behind Hamilton, however, Vettel and Verstappen swapped places.

GOOD ODDS

There has been at least one Safety Car period during each of the first ten races. So the odds were good that there would be a Safety Car in the 2018 event.

RIGHT AWAY

The Safety Car came out on the first lap after Sergio Perez pushed his Force India teammate Esteban Ocon into a wall.

NO USE

But that would be the only Safety Car period during the race, so it would be of no use for the teams to use it as a strategy tool later on.

SETTLE DOWN

The top 10 qualifiers had all started on Pirelli's softest tire compound slicks – the hyper soft. The drivers settled down to try to make those tires last as long as possible so that they would only have to pit once for new tires.

THE GAMBLE

Vettel pitted early, after just 14 laps, and Ferrari took a gamble by fitting the ultra soft compound tires rather than the more durable soft tires.

SOFTS

Hamilton pitted a lap later, got four soft tires, and got back out in front of Vettel.

TRAFFIC

Unfortunately for Vettel, he returned to the track behind Sergio Perez and got stuck behind the Force India.

YES!!!

Verstappen stopped for the softs after 17 laps. Vettel had been held up just enough that Verstappen was able to fend him off and maintain second place.

"Yes!!!" Verstappen yelled over the radio.

MORE STOPS

By now Raikkonen and Bottas had both pitted for the soft Pirellis. Ricciardo waited longer than them and finally came in after 27 laps for the ultra soft compounds.

RESUMING

So Hamilton resumed the lead at the start of lap 28. The order behind him settled down: Verstappen, Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo.

THE LONG WAIT

Now it became a case of waiting for something to happen. There are often accidents and incidents and Safety Cars during the nearly two-hour race that juggle the running order. But it would be a long wait as there were none of those and the top six remained static.

BEST OF THE REST

Fernando Alonso who was seventh and best of the rest in his McLaren.

NOT TODAY BRO!

It looked like Verstappen would get one more chance to pass Hamilton as the latter got ensnared while lapping cars around about lap 37. But there was really no chance.

"If you're lucky you catch the cars at the right point and they let you by so you don't lose any time," Hamilton said, "but today I always caught them at an unfortunate point. So when Max was right behind, I had to go on the defensive, and I thought to myself: 'Bro, you're not getting by - not today!'"

NO RISKING

"When I got close to Lewis due to back markers I never really thought the pass would be possible," Verstappen said after finishing second. "It's hard to overtake here so I didn't want to take the risk. It was also slightly unfair how he had been held up by drivers not getting out of the way."

NOT FAST ENOUGH

Vettel, further back, finished third.

"Overall we were not fast enough" he said. "We didn't have the pace in the race. But also we tried to be aggressive in the beginning and obviously it didn't work out. After that I think I had a different race from the other guys, on a different tire, and I wasn't very convinced that we could make it to the end, but pitting wasn't an option because you lose too much time in the pit stop. So we just focused on making it home."

FORMATION FINISH

Bottas, Raikkonen and Ricciardo rounded out the top six in a formation finish.

FRONT FOOT BACK FOOT

Hamilton now has a 40-point lead over Vettel and six races remain.

"We're really just taking it one race at a time, knowing that Ferrari have had quite good pace for the last few races," Hamilton said of his championship chances. "Generally, whilst we've finished on front foot, we start on the back foot, each weekend – but with a mentality that, if we do a good enough job, maybe we'll come out ahead."