Alonso wins in Singapore

Fernando Alonso won Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

It wasn’t an easy victory for the Ferrari driver who had to resist immense pressure from Vettel all race long.

The Spaniard took a decent start from pole position but had to defend quite aggressively his place from a charging Sebastian Vettel. He managed to stay in front and tried to build a gap in the first laps.

At the end of the opening lap, Alonso was leading from Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Webber. Further down the order, Heidfeld tangled with the Force Indias and was forced to pit for a new nosecone. Having started last on the grid, Felipe Massa also pitted at the end of lap 1.

Tonio Liuzzi had to stop in the second split of lap 2 with suspension damage on his Force India. The Safety Car had to be deployed to clear the stricken car. A number of drivers, including Championship leader Mark Webber, elected to pit. The Safety Car released the field at the end of lap 5 and Alonso resumed his charge at the front.

He upped the pace lap after lap but couldn’t really shake Vettel off. There was some concern though in the Red Bull garage as Vettel was instructed to try and cool the brakes slightly. Meanwhile, his teammate Webber was up in P8 after his early stop but was losing time behind the Williams of Barrichello.

The gap between Alonso and Vettel was up to three seconds on lap 16. Hamilton in third was 10 seconds down on the leader. As Webber remained stuck behind Barrichello, the two leaders built themselves a big enough margin to make a stop without losing position to the Australian.

On lap 22 Webber was urged by the RBR team to make a move on Barrichello. He had a scary moment in trying to do so and lost two seconds to the Brazilian. In the meantime, third-placed Hamilton was told to up the pace ahead of his pit stop.

As the leading duo of Alonso and Vettel set a scorching pace, the McLarens started to fade away, losing more than 2 seconds a lap… which meant Webber was likely to jump them when they stopped.

Vettel cut Alonso’s lead to 1.8s on lap 28 and kept on pushing as Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to blink.

Alonso and Vettel pitted on lap 30. They rejoined in the same order and were back at the front when Nico Rosberg pitted on lap 31. Yet to stop, Robert Kubica was up in P3 for Renault. Webber was in fifth place with both McLarens now behind him.

Kobayashi ran off into the wall on lap 32. Bruno Senna followed suit seconds later and the Safety Car was deployed. Kubica and Barrichello pitted at the end of this lap and rejoined in P6 and P7.

The race resumed on lap 36. Up in third place, Webber got under attack from the McLarens. Hamilton tried to pass the Red Bull. They collided and the British driver’s race was over! Further down the field, Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld also collided. The Sauber driver retired while his rival pitted for a new nosecone.

Race leader Alonso couldn’t afford to relax as Vettel found more pace on the harder tyre and closed within a second of the Ferrari. As the battle raged between the leaders, Kubica pitted from sixth for the second time.

Another battle shaped up further down the field with Robert Kubica all over the rear of Buemi for eleventh. The Toro Rosso driver defended well but eventually surrendered on lap 52. The Pole then quickly dispatched his teammate Petrov and the Ferrari of Massa. Hulkenberg was his next target and he passed him for eighth on lap 55. He overtook Sutil one lap later to take over seventh place.

Backmarkers allowed Vettel to close down the gap to Alonso to 0.9s with just four laps to go. He couldn’t take advantage of it though as Buemi and Kovalainen made contact. The Finn was sent into a spin and then rejoined the race… only to retire seconds later as the rear of his Lotus took fire.

Vettel pushed hard right to the end and crossed the line only 0.2s away from race winner Alonso. Webber finished third with Button fourth. Rosberg was fifth, Barrichello sixth and Kubica seventh.

Sutil, Hulkenberg and Massa also scored points.