SINGAPORE: Sebastian Vettel recovered from a heart-stopping track invasion by an unidentified fan as he completed a pole to flag victory at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday as championship leader Lewis Hamilton retired mid-race, injecting new life into the fight for the Formula One title.

Ferrari’s Vettel led wire-to-wire for his third win this year, ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as all three finished in the positions they started at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

But Germany’s Vettel had a major shock on lap 36 when he spotted a man walking on the track, a bizarre incident which brought the race to a temporary halt.

“There’s a man on the track!” he yelled over the team radio, as the safety car came out for the second time in the floodlit night race.

The disruption was the closest Vettel came to an upset and there were echoes of his quadruple world title romp with Red Bull as he calmly won by 1.4 seconds.

“Yes, you did it!” Vettel screamed to his team-mates over the radio as he crossed the line, with fireworks exploding over the grandstand and lighting up the night sky.

Hamilton, who had climbed up one spot from fifth on the grid but was never able to match the pace of the leaders, retired on the 32nd lap after his Mercedes lost power and began to drift down the field.

“It hasn’t been our weekend as a team, but sometimes it happens,” a dejected Hamilton said as he left the team garage.

The victory enabled Vettel to close to within 49 points of the Briton in the standings with six rounds remaining, while Nico Rosberg reduced the deficit to his team mate to 41 points after the German finished fourth.

Williams driver Valterri Bottas was fifth, Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat sixth and Force India’s Sergio Perez seventh.

Toro Rosso teenager Max Verstappen finished eighth, appearing to refuse team orders in the closing laps to move over for team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr., who was ninth.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr passed Romain Grosjean on the penultimate lap for the last points position.

There were two safety-car periods in the race. The first came following a collision between Williams’ Felipe Massa, who was coming out of the pits, and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

Race stewards blamed Hulkenberg, and he will get a three-place grid penalty at the next race.

The second came when a fan was seen wandering on the track near the Anderson Bridge section. The casually-dressed man soon climbed over a trackside barrier and off the track and the race resumed.

Jenson Button went into the back of Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus after the restart, showering shards of shattered bodywork over cars behind and ultimately forcing the McLaren driver out.

Out in front, Vettel was untroubled and he duly completed the win to send out a message to Mercedes that they will have to work to secure their second straight one-two in the title race.

The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka on Sept. 27.

Published in Dawn, September 21st , 2015

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