Buzzin F1 – Formula One Blog

Lewis Hamilton's Second Win Of 2009

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, crossed the line to take the chequered flag yesterday at the Singapore Grand Prix after dominating the race.

Timo Glock in the Toyota took the second step of the podium almost ten-seconds behind the McLaren followed by Fernando Alonso in the Renault for third.

As the race got underway, Hamilton kept his place from pole position as he led the drivers into the first corner, with Nico Rosberg in the Williams slotting into second ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, while Timo Glock moved up to fourth place from sixth on the grid.

Rosberg stayed on the tail of Hamilton until his first pit stop on lap 19 but was given a penalty for his actions on exiting the pits when he slid across the white line.  A harsh decision by race control left the Williams driver with a drive-through-penalty for crossing the line, losing his chance of finishing in the top three.

Vettel then began to chase down the McLaren driver, however, as the Red Bull driver took his second scheduled stop he was found guilty of speeding in the pit lane and was also given a drive-through-penalty but still managed to finish the race in fourth position.

The two Brawn GP drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, finished in fifth and sixth place after a terrible qualifying session left Barrichello in fifth and Button down in twelfth.  Button managed to jump ahead of his team-mate in his final stop, despite suffering from a brake problem until the end of the race, which leaves him 15 points ahead in the championship standings as they head to the Japan round.

Romain Grosjean retired his Renault on lap 4 after suffering from brake problems since the qualifying session, and on lap 21  it was Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber who was out of the race after being clipped by a spinning Force India driven by Adrian Sutil.  The safety car was deployed as Sutil managed to rejoin the race and the marshalls attempted to clear the track of debris.

As the drivers headed to the pits while the safety car was on track, Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso, went to leave his pit garage with the fuel hose still attached, pulling over a couple of his team which were fortunately uninjured, but later retired from the race with gearbox failure.

Not a good day for Mark Webber in the second Red Bull after running wide and going off circuit on lap 1 and then later spinning across the track before retiring with front right brake failure.  A similar problem also put the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi out of race.

Here are the results;

1. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 61 laps 1hr 56m 06.337s
2. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota +00m 09.6s
3. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault +00m 16.6s
4. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +00m 20.2s
5. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes +00m 30.0s
6. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes +00m 31.8s
7. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +00m 36.1s
8. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber +00m 55.0s

all results unofficial