“Dammit!” That was Nico Rosberg’s immediate reaction when told Lewis Hamilton had snatched pole position by 0.007s. It was a tiny amount – less than a nose – at the end of a 5 km lap in which both Mercedes drivers had made small mistakes. It set the scene for an intense battle under the floodlights in Singapore. But if Rosberg was disappointed then, he probably said far more under his breath 24 hours later when unreliability hit his car in a major way.
Even as Rosberg drove to the grid, he knew he was in trouble. The complex steering wheel on the Mercedes was preforming a fraction of the tasks needed to make the car work. A change of steering wheel on the grid did not help, hinting at a problem much deeper in the electrics. Most of the functions he could do without for the time being but the one control he desperately needed was the clutch. When that refused to operate as the field left the grid for the final parade lap, a start from the pit lane was inevitable. And that would simply be the beginning of his problems.
Rosberg joined at the back of the field but when he could not make inroads on the slow Caterham of Marcus Ericsson thanks to the Mercedes gearbox going from third directly to fifth, his laps were numbered. Rosberg parked for good at the end of lap 13, the trouble finally being traced to a broken loom buried deep in the steering column. Zero points for only the second time in 2014.
To make matters worse, Hamilton was heading for maximum points after leading cleanly from the start and maintaining his advantage through two stops for more sets of the softest tyre (the Supersoft). But, five laps later at half distance, the hard work was nullified when a Safety Car bunched the field after the nose had collapsed on Sergio Perez’s Force India following contact with the back of a Sauber.
Mercedes decided not to stop Hamilton for his set of the harder Soft tyre (each driver must use both types of tyre in the race). Meanwhile, the chasing Red Bulls had already taken on board their Softs and were attempting to run to the finish. The question now was whether or not Hamilton could pull out the 29-second advantage needed in the remaining 24 laps (once the Safety Car had been withdrawn) to get in and out of the pits without losing his lead. We were about to discover just how fast the Mercedes could go.
At the end of the first lap (after the restart) Hamilton led by a massive 3.2 seconds. The gap opened to 25 seconds with 10 laps to go but, by now, Hamilton’s pace had taken the life from his tyres and he had no option but to stop. He rejoined behind Sebastian Vettel and squeezing Daniel Ricciardo to grab second at the pit lane exit. Now, of course, Hamilton had the advantage of fresh rubber. With a couple of laps he was back in front and going on to win by 13.5 seconds from the Red Bull duo.
Apart from Rosberg, the most disappointed man at the track had to be Fernando Alonso at the end of a weekend in which the Ferrari had worked better than usual on a street circuit the Spaniard enjoys. Starting from fifth, Alonso had done his usual Singapore trick by making places on the outside line going into the first corner – and using the run-off in the process. Alonso handed second place back to Vettel but managed to jump the Red Bull at the second stop.
Like Hamilton, Alonso had taken on another set of the Supersoft. But, unlike Mercedes when the Safety Car appeared not long after, Ferrari chose to bring Alonso in there and then for the Soft tyre. Relegated to fourth, Alonso waited for the Red Bulls to run into tyre trouble. It never happened and a much-needed podium for Ferrari was lost to bad luck and poor risk management.
If luck is to be the deciding factor in this championship, then it has swung Hamilton’s way as he leads the points table for the first time in 2014. There’s just three points separating the Mercedes drivers. With five races to go, the championship effectively starts in Japan on 5 October.