MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS driver Lewis Hamilton took an impressive victory in the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix this evening, while Nico Rosberg was forced to retire in a tense race at the spectacular Marina Bay Street Circuit and a double podium for Red Bull.
– Lewis completed a clean sweep of pole position, fastest lap and victory for the fifth time in his Formula One career
– This marks Lewis’ 29th career Formula One win – his eighth for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS
– Nico was forced to retire on lap 13 after a steering column wiring loom failure
– The malfunction was first detected on the laps to the grid and eventually left him stuck in neutral at his first pit stop
– Lewis now leads the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship by three points from his team-mate
Lewis Hamilton
It was great to come here after winning in Monza and start the final leg of the season with such a competitive car. It would have been a really hardcore race if Nico had been at the front, as we clearly had the pace. It was all running pretty comfortably until the Safety Car came out, which gave me some problems. I was driving hard to build the gap but then the tyres started dropping off and I wasn’t sure what to do – keep pushing or back off to look after them. So we pitted straight away and I came out behind Seb. But I knew they were on a two-stop strategy and that his tyres were old. I went for it down the back straight – the gap was pretty small and maybe I could have chosen another point on the circuit. But I luckily squeezed through and made it stick. Of course, it’s not an ideal result with Nico retiring, so that shows we still have work to do to get on top of reliability. But it’s been a great job from the team at everyone at the factories to make this mega car. Now we need to keep pushing hard for Japan in two weeks’ time.