Sebastian Vettel controlled the race in his Red Bull and produced a dominant performance in Singapore. It is easy to confuse the performance of the Ferrari driving four time World Champion in Singapore with any one of his previous three victories in 2011, 2012 and 2013, when he masterfully guided his Red Bull car around the Marina Bay street circuit. He did so again on a track that he may as well consider home, such is his dominance. As Vettel moved on from a podium at Monza to pole position in qualifying and Victory at Singapore the Ferrari team dominated in Singapore, with Kimi Raikkonen claiming third place on the podium, fishing behind Vettel’s old teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The resurgence of Red Bull over recent races has been good to witness and Ricciardo claimed the fastest lap of the race as he crossed the finish line on the final lap. With off track engine supplier rumours mounting Red Bull fans will continue to hope that this promise can continue in Suzuka and will no doubt have a keen eye on the engine of the Ferrari.

Truth be told, this was one of the more tame and dull races so far in the 2015 Formula One season. Vettel’s utter dominance was evident by the way he controlled the race after the virtual and actual safety car, brought out by a pit exit collision between Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg. He managed the tyres and controlled the pace of the race, opting to not shoot off into the distance as he had done prior to the safety car. It was a dominant and controlled race from Vettel who never looked in danger of losing his place on the top step by keeping his ex teammate behind, Vettel responded to each attack from Ricciardo by maintaining a gap between his Ferrari and the Red Bull.

For only the second time this season we had no Silver Arrow on the podium, and although this may be refreshing for the sport and bring talking points of a powerful Ferrari and resurgent Red Bull, the questions have been more aimed at the evident lack of pace from the Mercedes. Was this a one off where Mercedes just couldn’t get the tyres working, was the set up completely wrong for the one off night race in Singapore. These questions will no doubt be answered at one of the toughest and most unique circuits on the calendar at Suzuka. Hamilton was looking good after his pit stop and before his loss of power caused by the breakage of a long-established clamp in the power unit, Toto Wolff even went as far as to say that Hamilton may have had outside shot at the podium before the break, which caused Hamilton to retire his car after losing power. He did however once again seem to have him teammate and greatest title rival in his back pocket before the failure. Nevertheless, thanks to the engine failure Rosberg has decreased his gap in the Championship standings to 41 points, but he will have to be wary of Vettel who is now only 8 points behind, with the same amount of wins as Rosberg this season. Ferrari strengthened its second place in the Constructors standings, with Kimi Raikkonen claiming third however, it will trouble the fin that he continues, much like Rosberg, to look far slower and less enigmatic in the car than his teammate.

Toro Rosso had another fine weekend where they gained some good points with both drivers finishing in the points. Max Verstappen had a superb race, after his mistake at the start he was able to recover to claim 8th with some formidable overtaking lighting up the Marina Bay. Carlos Sainz Jr claimed a solid 9th ahead of Felipe Nasr’s Sauber.