Hamilton on song in Singapore as Button takes another step closer to his championship dream
BRITAIN’S Jenson Button toasted the sweetest fifth-placed finish of his career yesterday at the Singapore Grand Prix, after tightening his grip on a maiden world championship.
Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton won the night race but Button increased his lead over Brawn GP team-mate and nearest title rival Rubens Barrichello, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel only made up minimal ground.
The result leaves Button 15 points clear of Barrichello and 25 ahead of Vettel, the only other man who can still catch him, with 30 points up for grabs from the season’s remaining three races.
Button was particularly satisfied with his performance, having started from 11th on the grid following Saturday’s qualification disaster.
“I come away with a result which doesn’t look so good on paper but it’s almost like a victory to win these points,” he said. “I gained one point on
Rubens and lost one point on Sebastian so all in all it is almost the perfect race. Mathematically Rubens can still beat me for sure but it has taken a lot of weight off my shoulders, so it’s a good finish.”
Vettel would have boosted his slim title hopes but for a drive-through penalty, earned for speeding in the pit lane, that saw him drop from second to fourth. Red Bull’s misery was completed by Mark Webber’s brake failure that ended both his race and his championship bid.
Defending champion Hamilton, who was joined on the podium by Toyota’s Timo Glock and Renault’s Fernando Alonso, was rarely troubled on the way to his second win of a frustrating season. “It was a tough race, not easy that is for sure,” said the Englishman. “I came here hoping to have a good result and hoping to redeem myself after the last race, I did it, we did it and am very happy.”
Former champion Alonso dedicated his podium finish to former Renault boss Flavio Briatore, who was last week handed an indefinite ban from the sport for conspiring to fix last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The Spaniard, who is managed by Briatore, said: “I dedicate this podium to Flavio – he is at home but he is part of the success we had today.”