Two–stop strategy wins at the longest race of the year
After a tense duel from the red lights to the chequered flag, with two safety car periods, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel took his second win of the season in Singapore with a two-stop tyre strategy.Vettel started from third on the grid with the P Zero Red supersoft tyre and then completed two stints on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre, which had been nominated for the weekend. Vettel’s winning margin was nine seconds over McLaren’s Jenson Button, who adopted the same strategy, pitting four laps later for his first pit stop than Vettel. The race was the longest of the year, running to the two-hour limit two laps before the scheduled 61 laps were completed.
The top 10 all started on the supersoft tyre, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Sergio Perez the highest-placed starters to begin the race on the soft tyre, from 11th and 14th on the grid respectively. Following an incident on the opening lap that dropped him to last, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa also switched to the soft tyres when he was forced to pit on lap one. His team mate Fernando Alonso maintains his championship lead after finishing third in Singapore (from fifth on the grid) also using a two-stop strategy. Alonso’s 81st podium breaks the record previously held by Ayrton Senna.
The first driver to pit was Red Bull’s Mark Webber on lap eight, who changed to the softs, while Vettel made his stop for softs two laps later. Button made his first stop on lap 14. Hulkenberg and Perez both pitted on lap 18, putting on soft tyres once more as part of an intended two-stop strategy, which enabled them to have front-running pace on the supersoft at the end of the race. Massa also ended the race on the supersoft, running on his final set for 26 laps, and making up several places in the closing stages to finish eighth, despite at one point running last.
When the first safety car came out on lap 33 all the front-runners came in for their second scheduled pit stop, with Vettel rejoining in the lead on soft tyres in front of Button on the same compound. Their second set of soft tyres was enough to last them for 45 minutes (or 26 laps) until the end of the race as they traded fastest laps.
A second safety car period from lap 40 enabled Perez to make his second pit stop of the day without any significant loss of track position, and he finished 11th after choosing to start on the soft tyre. Hulkenberg also stopped during the second safety car period, but his chances of using strategy to gain position were ruined when he was forced into an extra pit stop following an on-track incident, making him a three-stopper in the end.