General
Singapore's historic Grand Prix: Vettel's last victory
- Ludo van Denderen
In 15 years, the Singapore Grand Prix has become a darling of the F1 calendar. The race under the artificial lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit always produces pretty pictures. But the Grand Prix is more than a showpiece of the local tourist board. A number of memorable races have now been held in Singapore.
Most prominent is probably the first edition in 2008, the year of Crashgate: Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately putting his Renault into the wall, allowing teammate Fernando Alonso to benefit greatly from an early pit stop and thus win the race. Felipe Massa is to this day trying to get this race deleted from the history books.
Vettel cries, Vettel laughs
The 2017 race is also still remembered by many. Immediately after the start, the two Ferrari men Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen hit each other. All three drivers had to abandon the race immediately. A year later, Vettel was luckier. Then he won the Grand Prix, ahead of his new teammate Charles Leclerc. Afterwards, this 53rd win turned out to be Vettel's last in Formula 1.
In the first laps of the race, it did not look like the German would take victory. Vettel started from third place, behind Lewis Hamilton and polesitter Leclerc. The latter took off right at the start, heading for his third consecutive win. However, the pit stop strategy made Leclerc forfeit everything: on lap 19, Vettel came in, and a lap later the Monegasque. The successful undercut had allowed Vettel to pass Leclerc, a position he did not relinquish for the remainder of the race.
Leclerc incidentally did finish second, realising the first one-two in two seasons for Ferrari. Max Verstappen drove his Red Bull to third position, more than a second behind Leclerc. Later world champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth. Yet above all, the image of the podium remained after this Grand Prix, the last time Formula 1 saw four-time champion Vettel on the top step of the podium.