Hamilton dominates Singapore night race

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Lewis Hamilton has won the Singapore GP after starting from pole position. He was never threatened on his way to victory. After the two hour race, Timo Glock finished second, ahead of Fernando Alonso who savours a podium for Renault.

Along with the floodlights around the track, the circuit is lit up by lightning flashes. Many teams are not sure if it will stay dry for the whole race. Track temperature is 30°C and air 33C.

Nick Heidfeld meanwhile will start from the pitline. He qualified 8th but his car was found underweight after a ballast fitting problem. The team have now also changed his engine and gearbox.

When the red lights go out - fortunately not all the lights - Hamilton is quickest off the mark and can easily retain his first place. Sebastian Vettel got passed by Rosberg while Alonso was initially challenging for third place. The tense battles cost him dearly with Webber first passing him again in a run-off area and Glock profiting after that.

Only three laps in the race Grosjean rolls into the pitlane and steps out of the car. Is he again experiencing brake problems after having struggled with that in qualifying?

On lap 6, Webber set a lap 6 seconds slower than the regular pace and immediately lost places to Glock and Alonso, the latter now again running in 4th as he started. It appears that Webber was told to let Alonso by after passing him illegally in the first lap.

Since lap 10, the interesting end of the field is the rear where Alguersuari is holding up several drivers behind him. Sutil is challenging prominently but appears to be unable to find a good passing spot. Fisichella is also close, but he is mostly busy fending off Liuzzi.

At one point Liuzzi had nearly passed the Ferrari only to end up in a yellow flag area due to debris on track from Glock. Glock's Toyota suddenly lost a fairly big white part of the car, leaving it on the racing line.

5 laps later, the debris and the yellow flag are still there. It will be intersting to see how the marshalls are going to resolve this issue.

On lap 17, just when Vettel pits, one marshall runns out on track and gets the piece over the safety wall. They have looked carefully at the track situation to find a space on track without passing cars.

One lap later, Rosberg makes his first pitstop but crosses the white line on the pitlane's exit. Hi gets a drive through penalty because of that.

On lap 20, Hamilton is in the pits and comes back on track just ahead of Alonso who stil has not pitted. 30 seconds later Sutil attempts an optimistic pass on Alguersuari and in order to avoid a crash spins on the inside of the corner. Being crossed on the track, the following cars managed to avoid him, apart from Nick Heidfeld who touched the Force India's front wing.

Heidfeld is out with a broken rear suspension while Sutil managed to get back into the pitlane for a change of nosecone. 2 laps later though it's also the end for him as the team pull him into the pitbox.

Many drivers make their stops as the safety car comes out while Nico Rosberg will have to make his drive through when the sefety car is again off the track.

On lap 25 the drivers are off to race freely again. None of the positions have changed though.

Rosberg awaits to complete his drive-through penalty until lap 28 and rejoins the track in 11th positions.

Almost halfway through the race, Hamilton is still leading, now ahead of Vettel, Glock, Alonso, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Button and Webber.

By lap 33, Hamilton's lead over Vettel is still only half a second. Vettel is going 7 more laps and is pushing Hamilton hard. Timo Glock is following at 6 seconds and Alonso is another 6 second down.

2 laps later Rosberg is pitting and changes to the softer tyre. He was stuck behind Trulli and is putting the hammer down even though he hardly has a chance on points now.

On lap 40, Vettel pits from P2 and also makes the change to the option tyres after having run his first 2 stints on the harder compound due to Red Bull's worries with the rear tyre wear. 2 laps later though he is handed a drive-through penalty due to pit-lane speeding, and when he then drivers over a kerb and loses a part of his diffuser, the race will likely end up with very few points for the German.

Two laps later Mark Webber pitted with lots of dust coming off of the front brakes. The team was clearly worried about those brakes, and only 2 laps further into the race Mark found himself into the barriers.

One lap after that, both Toro Rosso cars are pulled into their pitboxes. It appears that Alguersuari was retired for brake issues while Buemi had a gearbox problem.

11 laps to go, and Alonso makes his final stop from P1 to take on option tyres, completed in only 5.5 seconds. He rejoined the track in P4. The Spaniard moves up a further place into a potential podium after Button's pitstop. The Briton ends up in P5, ahead of his teammate and looks set to make this a good race for his championship ambitions.

5 laps before the chequered flag, Button is then ordered to not challenge Vettel and just take the points for the championship. Just like on Mark Webber's Red Bull, the right front brakes are suffering badly and heavily throwing dust around.

Positions at the end didn't change anymore, especially with most drivers coasting to make sure that they make it to the finish and in the points. In the end, only 14 cars made it through this 2-hour challenge.