Singapore GP – Race Results: 3rd!

| Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com |

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sebastian Vettel produced his most dominant performance of the 2013 Formula 1 season so far to win the Singapore Grand Prix.

Mixed emotions for the Lotus team in Singapore as a stellar drive from Kimi Räikkönen brought a podium from P13 on the grid while Romain Grosjean was forced to retire from a very strong position up ahead. Here’s how it happened…

Pos  Driver         Team                       
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                              
 3.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault                        
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                             
 5.  Hamilton       Mercedes                             
 6.  Massa          Ferrari                              
 7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes                     
 8.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes                     
 9.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari                       
10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes                 
11.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault                     
12.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari                       
13.  Bottas         Williams-Renault                     
14.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari                   
15.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault                     
16.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault                     
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth                    
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth                    
19.  Pic            Caterham-Renault                     
DNF  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes                 
DNF  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault                        
DNF  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari                   

World Championship standings, round 13:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        247        1.  Red Bull-Renault          377
 2.  Alonso        187        2.  Ferrari                   274
 3.  Hamilton      151        3.  Mercedes                  267
 4.  Raikkonen     149        4.  Lotus-Renault             206
 5.  Webber        130        5.  McLaren-Mercedes           76
 6.  Rosberg       116        6.  Force India-Mercedes       62
 7.  Massa          87        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         31
 8.  Grosjean       57        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             19
 9.  Button         54        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36       
11.  Sutil          26       
12.  Perez          22       
13.  Hulkenberg     19       
14.  Ricciardo      18       
15.  Vergne         13       
16.  Maldonado       1

Video: SkySports post-race interview

Quotes: Raikkonen: back pain no problem during the race

“I didn’t feel it too much in the race,” he said. “Yesterday not ideal and I almost didn’t drive.

“We have to be happy enough with finishing third and we can sort the problems for the next race.

“It is not the first time I have had some issues with my back and I know I have some work to do over the winter so we will see what we can do.

“Now afterwards it’s not 100 per cent. We have two weeks to rest and get it right. We did the best we could, and could not achieve much more today.”

Raikkonen sealed his unlikely podium finish with a bold pass around the outside of Jenson Button’s McLaren seven laps from the end.

The Finn played down the impressive manoeuvre.

“Maybe it looks more tricky,” said Raikkonen. “You have more grip when you brake on-line and it’s easier to know where you have to brake than on the inside.

“It’s not an easy one but I managed to get past and that is the main thing.”

Lotus Team Quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen – 3: “It’s been a difficult weekend, so to finish on the podium is a good result. The car felt good and it could have been even better if I’d been able to do more work in practice, but even with a better qualifying performance I think third was the maximum we could achieve today. The problem with my back hasn’t been ideal, but it felt much better than yesterday and I didn’t really notice it in the race, only afterwards. I have some time to recover before Korea and we were pretty strong there last year, so let’s see what we can do next time out.”

Romain Grosjean – DNF: “The race was going pretty well and I think a second or third place finish was a realistic prospect. We had a good strategy pitting under the safety car and we should have finished well, but unfortunately today my engine had other ideas. We lost air pressure and the team tried to fix the problem by topping it up with an additional pit stop, but that didn’t work so we had to retire which is never what you want to happen.”

Eric Boullier: “Another day of mixed fortunes and commiserations for Romain who had a superb weekend, stymied by a reliability issue in the race. On the other hand, huge congratulations to Kimi for a typical “never-give-up” race carving his way through the field nicely to put the back problems which have affected him all weekend right behind him. Our race strategy worked perfectly today and we were able to jump a number of other cars well.”