Vettel Wins As Hamilton's Forced To Retire

Sebastian Vettel won the Singapore GP in style - but there was disappointment for Lewis Hamilton at the Marina Bay circuit after the world champion was forced to retire.

Vettel, the polesitter, led the race from start to finish in his Ferrari to take the chequered flag for the 42nd time in his career, moving the 28-year-old ahead of Ayrton Senna to third in the all-time winners' list behind Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost.

He finished narrowly ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari finishing third after a race that nudged the two-hour mark.

Nico Rosberg finished fourth, closing the gap on Hamilton in the battle for the world championship to 41 points following the latter's retirement on lap 34.

Hamilton was himself hoping to equal Senna's tally of 41 wins from 161 starts, but with Mercedes struggling for pace he lined up only fifth on the grid.

He had run fourth ahead of his Mercedes teammate in the race, but started dropping down the field after his car developed a turbo boost problem and eventually suggested retirement in order to save his car's engine for next Sunday's Japanese GP.

By that stage there had already been one Safety Car, introduced after Nico Hulkenberg collided with Felipe Massa.

Massa was exiting the pits at the time and the stewards decided the blame lay with the Force India driver, who has received a three-place grid penalty for the race at Suzuka.

The Safety Car came out again shortly after Hamilton retired, prompted this time by a spectator's decision to walk out on to the track.

He promptly disappeared back over the barriers - although the FIA later confirmed that a 27-year-old man had been arrested.

Vettel had scorched away at the lights and pulled out a gap of three seconds over Ricciardo on lap one alone.

But he was far more circumspect after the first Safety Car re-start, suggesting that with Ricciardo's Red Bull showing superior tyre wear, and with the optimum race strategy hovering between two and three stops, Ferrari were trying to match their rivals by choosing the former option.

It even looked as though Vettel was attempting to back Ricciardo into Raikkonen's clutches. But as it turned out, the second Safety Car made Ferrari's decision for them and their lead driver did the rest, with the four-time champion having the measure of his former teammate from there on in.

Valtteri Bottas finished fifth behind Rosberg, with Daniil Kvyat next up. The Russian ran fourth behind Raikkonen in the early stages, but lost out under both Safety Cars, with Hamilton and Rosberg getting ahead the first time.