Sebastian Vettel scored Ferrari’s third win of the Formula 1 season by leading home Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, the German controlled the race throughout, successfully negotiating two Safety Car restarts in the two-hour contest.

The result marks Vettel’s fourth Singapore win in five years and draws him to within eight points of Nico Rosberg in the battle for second in the championship.

Kimi Raikkonen completed a strong day for Ferrari in third as the top three held their starting spots from start to finish.

Rosberg took fourth on a difficult day for Mercedes following a shock struggle for pace that saw its two entries share the third row of the grid.

Lewis Hamilton ran as high as fourth after both Mercedes entries jumped Daniil Kvyat in the first round of stops.

The Brit soon fell down the order, however, as he reported a loss of power that eventually saw the championship leader called to the garage.

That left Valtteri Bottas to secure fifth ahead of Kvyat, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Felipe Nasr.

Verstappen started a lap behind the field after stalling on the grid, but benefitted greatly from an early Safety Car called following a clash between Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa.

Hulkenberg crashed out when he turned across Massa at Turn 3 as the Williams driver returned to the track following his first pitstop, earning the German a three-place grid penalty for Suzuka.

That incident triggered the first round of stops for the front-runners, initially under a Virtual Safety Car before a full Safety Car deployment was required while the debris was cleared from the racing line.

The second yellow was called when a spectator appeared on the circuit, casually walking along the inside of the track before climbing back over the armco to safety.

That incident saw the leaders pit for the second time and left a mighty scrap for the minor places to unfold after the restart.

Verstappen was one of the stars of the race as he carved his way through before ignoring orders from his team to allow Sainz passed in the closing stages to secure eighth.

Following his retirement, Hamilton now takes a reduced 41 point championship lead into the Japanese Grand Prix next weekend.

Result: Singapore Grand Prix

Championship standings after Race 13 of 19