Sebastian Vettel is just one point away from securing the 2011 Formula One world title after scoring another win this evening at the Singapore Grand Prix.
After a gruelling two hour race around the steamy Marina Bay street track, the German finished ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.
Button’s second place means that the Brit is the only driver capable of toppling Vettel for this year’s title.
Vettel only needs to score one point to wrap up his second F1 title with five races remaining.
After making a fast getaway, Vettel controlled the race from the front of the pack, only coming under threat when a Safety Car appeared for a clash between Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and Sergio Perez (Sauber). Schumacher hit the wall hard but emerged unharmed.
Button’s fourth podium in-a-row came in a similar fashion to Vettel’s win. He grabbed second from a slow-starting Webber and maintained that place for the entire race.
Webber’s slow start forced him to come through the field – and not for the first time this season. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) made Webber work hard for his podium. Superior race strategy from Alonso’s saw Webber have to pass the Spaniard twice on track. In the end, Webber got past on the restart lap at Turn 10 in a brave move.
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) had an eventful race. Following on from his qualifying incident with Felipe Massa (Ferrari), the rivals clashed again, with Hamilton copping front wing damage and a drive-through penalty, while Massa suffered a puncture.
Hamilton dropped to as low as 15th but raced back through the pack to take fifth.
Scotsman Paul di Resta (Force India) scored a career-best F1 finish with sixth place ahead of Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India) a recovering Massa and Perez.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished an uneventful 19th in his HRT F1 entry, four laps off the lead and ahead of his team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi.
The next round of the F1 World Championship will be held at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Result; Singapore Grand prix.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 61 | Winner | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 61 | +1.7 secs | 3 | 18 |
| 3 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 61 | +29.2 secs | 2 | 15 |
| 4 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 61 | +55.4 secs | 5 | 12 |
| 5 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 61 | +67.7 secs | 4 | 10 |
| 6 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 61 | + secs | 10 | 8 |
| 7 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 60 | +1 Lap | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 60 | +1 Lap | 9 | 4 |
| 9 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 60 | +1 Lap | 6 | 2 |
| 10 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 60 | +1 Lap | 11 | 1 |
| 11 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 60 | +1 Lap | 13 | |
| 12 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 60 | +1 Lap | 14 | |
| 13 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 60 | +1 Lap | 12 | |
| 14 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 59 | +2 Laps | 17 | |
| 15 | 9 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 59 | +2 Laps | 15 | |
| 16 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 59 | +2 Laps | 19 | |
| 17 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 59 | +2 Laps | 18 | |
| 18 | 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 59 | +2 Laps | 22 | |
| 19 | 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 57 | +4 Laps | 23 | |
| 20 | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 57 | +4 Laps | 24 | |
| 21 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 56 | Accident | 16 | |
| Ret | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 47 | +14 Laps | 20 | |
| Ret | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 28 | Accident | 8 | |
| Ret | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 9 | +52 Laps | 21 | |
Championship position
| Pos | Driver | Nationality | Team | Points |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | German | RBR-Renault | 309 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | British | McLaren-Mercedes | 185 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Spanish | Ferrari | 184 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Australian | RBR-Renault | 182 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | British | McLaren-Mercedes | 168 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Brazilian | Ferrari | 84 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | German | Mercedes | 62 |
| 8 | Michael Schumacher | German | Mercedes | 52 |
| 9 | Vitaly Petrov | Russian | Renault | 34 |
| 10 | Nick Heidfeld | German | Renault | 34 |
| 11 | Adrian Sutil | German | Force India-Mercedes | 28 |
| 12 | Kamui Kobayashi | Japanese | Sauber-Ferrari | 27 |
| 13 | Paul di Resta | British | Force India-Mercedes | 20 |
| 14 | Jaime Alguersuari | Spanish | STR-Ferrari | 16 |
| 15 | Sebastien Buemi | Swiss | STR-Ferrari | 13 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Mexican | Sauber-Ferrari | 9 |
| 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Brazilian | Williams-Cosworth | 4 |
| 18 | Bruno Senna | Brazilian | Renault | 2 |
| 19 | Pastor Maldonado | Venezuelan | Williams-Cosworth | 1 |
| 20 | Pedro de la Rosa | Spanish | Sauber-Ferrari | 0 |
| 21 | Jarno Trulli | Italian | Lotus-Renault | 0 |
| 22 | Heikki Kovalainen | Finnish | Lotus-Renault | 0 |
| 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Italian | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
| 24 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Belgian | Virgin-Cosworth | 0 |
| 25 | Timo Glock | German | Virgin-Cosworth | 0 |
| 26 | Narain Karthikeyan | Indian | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
| 27 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australian | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
| 28 | Karun Chandhok | Indian | Lotus-Renault | 0 |
Check out the Foxsports News report on the race
