Formula 1 Singapore: Hamilton crowned champion

Lewis Hamilton proved that he hasn’t lost his touch yet when he took home the title at race day today. In what must be one of his best run this season, Hamilton took a comfortable lead all the way to finish even though the race was interrupted between laps 21 and 25 when the Safety Car was deployed, caused by a collision between Force India’s Adrian Sutil and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (Sutil was slapped with a US$20,000 fine after the race).

Punters were in for a rude shock though – the most unlikely driver, Toyota’s Timo Glock, came in second after driving superbly and sticking to a great pit stop strategy throughout the 61 laps. He was a close 9.6 seconds behind Hamilton.

Fernando Alonso, who was seen pushing his car to its very limit at every single opportunity, also went on to show that he is a capable driver at this particular track. The champion at last year’s Singapore race and currently rumoured to join Ferrari next season, Alonso manage to get the third position. Then again, that could have been different if he had been more strategic with his pit stops.

Hot favourite, William’s Nico Rosberg was following the McLaren closely, but due to a silly mistake made while exiting the pit, he was given a drive-through penalty which eventually plummeted him down to an embarrassing 11th place. Red Bull’s Mark Webber also suffered a spate of bad luck – after being told to fall back behind Alonso and Glock for his “dangerous overtaking manoeuvre” by race stewards, he crashed at Turn 1 towards the end of the race. This was caused by his car’s brake problem.

Brawn GP extended the team's lead in the Constructors' Championship at the Singapore Grand Prix with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello bringing their Brawn-Mercedes cars home in fifth and sixth positions respectively.

Both drivers had good first laps to set up the points-scoring opportunity with Rubens gaining two places to be running in seventh position, and Jenson making up one place to tenth position. Rubens pitted first on lap 19, gaining a place over Mark Webber, whilst Jenson was held up behind Heikki Kovalainen before pitting earlier than planned when the safety car came out.

A problem with engaging neutral at his second stop on lap 46 cost Rubens valuable time allowing Jenson, who was fuelled five laps longer, to gain fifth place when he stopped on lap 51.

Brawn currently has 153 points, Red Bull behind with 110.5 points and then Ferrari at third with 62 points. In the Driver’s title race, Jenson Button is still at the top with 84 points, team mate Rubens Barichello just behind him with 69 points and then Sebastien Vettel in third with 59 points.

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[I](Oneshift.com is reporting live from the SGP Press Suite)[/I]

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