The momentum that Nico Rosberg had been working on ever since coming back from the summer break just continues to push him forward in his championship challenge, which he is back on!
Just as I pointed out in my Italian GP review, in this 'final stint' of the season, each and every race becomes more and more important in terms of the title fight, particularly for Nico, whose comfortable phase at the moment just seems to continue.
Every win Nico has taken recently, has made him more confident for the next one, when he wins the next one he's even more confident for the next one.
This is the exact reason why I have been pointing out how vital it was for Nico to string together a series of wins, which he managed to do two weeks ago in Monza and now continues to do today in Marina Bay.
Earlier in the season we saw how important the phase which a driver is going through is, as Rosberg was unable put his European GP win to good use to cut the good moment teammate and championship rival Hamilton had at that moment.
Meanwhile even earlier in the year we witnessed the dominance with which Rosberg cruised through the championship in the first four races, while Hamilton just couldn't help but settle for second place.
Despite eventually standing at the top of this night race's podium, Nico had to break a sweat for the win this time around, as Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo came only half a second behind in second place.
A small but significant strategical mistake from Rosberg's crew was to blame for putting the German in a risky position in the closing stage of the race.
We had another shaky start to the race with a hard shunt between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Nico Hulkenberg right at the home straight with the latter paying the ultimate price, ending up in the barriers with the back part of the car destroyed.
Still, the incident happened down in the midfield and did not influence the course of the race for the front runners, except for a short safety car period which made little impact on the racing order.
A few front runners such as Rosberg and Ricciardo pitted while the safety car was out, in order not to lose positions.
After things went back to normality, Rosberg and Ricciardo took no time to increase their advantage over their respective pursuers, Ricciardo and Hamilton, putting in 2 seconds each before lap 10.
Subsequently, Hamilton experienced a sizable loss of time to Ricciardo due to a a brake issue, that Rosberg himself would have a few laps later.
Such issue shortened the gap between Nico and Ricciardo to only 1.5 seconds.
While Nico sailed from this small setback onto a somewhat calm Sunday drive, Lewis would have to reduce his pace again later in the race due to the same brake problem. He lost a lot of distance to Ricciardo, which eventually caused Lewis to lose third place to Kimi Räikkönen on a master move from the Finn.
Kimi looked poised to take a second consecutive Singapore Grand Prix podium as Lewis didn't have the pace to take the position back from the Ferrari driver, but during his final stop, Kimi had a small mishap, which meant that he would come out behind Hamilton, who had already made his last stop.
This series of stops was the one that marked the beginning to the exciting finale no one expected to see from this race.
As both Ricciardo and Hamilton made their last stops of the race, suddenly and out of nowhere Nico Rosberg's calm drive was turned into a do or die dilemma.
His pit crew was ready to receive him at the end of lap 49 but Rosberg decided to stay out on a set of worn out soft tyres in a very questionable and risky decision.
He could've had the option to pit in the next lap but that alternative was quickly gone as Ricciardo had cut the gap down to 24 seconds in that lap, while Rosberg needed at least 26 seconds to stop and still come out in front.
Pitting quickly went from being a safety measure not to risk the tyres, to being a gamble to take in order to win without risking the tyres, a gamble which obviously required Rosberg to recover the lead from Ricciardo, which being in a street circuit wouldn't be an easy task at all.
Both options meant taking a risk, either risk staying out and lose out to Ricciardo or pit and let Ricciardo seize control over the lead.
As laps went by, it became clear Rosberg and his crew were going to take the first out of the two possible risks, and in my opinion, the lesser one.
Rosberg and his crew did certainly not expect for Ricciardo and Hamilton to stop again, as they were now in a situation they didn't need to be in.
Nervous faces filled the Mercedes garage as Ricciardo took big chunks off Rosberg's once healthy 28-seconds advantage, lap by lap.
Then, came the race defining moment. Not particularly an overtake or a mistake from any of the two drivers involved. As usual at this stage of the race, the leaders reached a group of cars to be lapped.
Rosberg obviously lost a small amount of time going through it, setting the tone for Ricciardo to pose a last minute attack for the lead, but he had not much to lose by going there.
On the other hand, Ricciardo had everything to lose. Not only going through lapped cars meant he would lose the time he had just made on Rosberg, but more importantly, he lost the pace and rhythm he had worked on building since he began his last stint.
By having to slow down significantly, he cut down the pace he was on, a pace which was certainly going to take him to the race victory.
It's not the time lost with the lapped group that cost Daniel a shot at the race, but the fact that he would take a few more laps to recover the feeling he had just before.
A nail-biting, unexpected ending to a race which Nico Rosberg walks out victoriously, not only having won another consecutive race, but another consecutive first win at a circuit which helps him to recover the lead of the championship.
A third consecutive win for Nico which makes it feel like the man is back to his 'early 2016' form, which he has desperately been looking for since the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton's lack of pace and consequent third place finish, meant the Briton would come out of Singapore 8 points behind Rosberg in the standings. A disappointing outcome to a race which could've been better for him.
Still, he seems to have understood what his role in this race was, and probably will be in some other races, he looked to be aware that his pace around this circuit was not comparable to that of Ricciardo or Rosberg, putting that together with the brake issue which hampered him early in the race, he really didn't stand much of a chance of getting higher than P3.
Actually though, he got lucky that Räikkönen had a slow stop after the Finn overtook him, because otherwise the podium finish would've been a long shot for him.
Nico could've not arrived to the final stage of the championship in a better form, having achieved consecutive wins at circuits where he was yet to take the win, and with only six races remaining in the calendar, although many things can happen in so little time, I think only two more consecutive race wins will be enough for Rosberg to strengthen his championship lead and more importantly, to finally knock out Hamilton's morale.
The only problem Rosberg has is tha Hamilton only needs to squeeze one victory out of the six remaining in order to cut Rosberg's good moment, which is more than enough to change the championship battle completely.
The only thing we can be sure of is that the title won't be decided before the last race.
Ricciardo will have to wait for another chance for the win, after having come so close to it this time.
It was a fantastic drive from the Aussie and an even better late rally which almost ended at the top.
Although he will definitely be one to keep an eye on for the next races, as he could be the one to spoil either Lewis' or Nico's party, today's excellent performance from the Red Bull driver should not be taken as seriously, given that this race was run on very different conditions from the majority of the others, in a colder surface and much more softer tyres.
Besides, had Rosberg's crew brought Nico in before or when Ricciardo had stopped, perhaps this would've been reduced to no more than a great effort on keeping Hamilton behind instead of the amazing late charge that it was.
But who knows, I could definitely be wrong on that one.
On the other hand, his teammate Verstappen finished P6 in a race which was much more promising for him, given his starting position.
The Dutchman blamed the bad start he had, which was the main cause of Hulkenberg's incident, on his finishing position, while it's not bad it's definitely less than what he could've done without such a start.
The early 2016 Kimi Räikkönen who was known for his charges late in the race and his excellent pace in the closing stages of competitions, was out in almost full force today, and I say almost because his ultimate target, which was the podium, just barely slipped out of his grasp, and through no mistake of his own as he had pitted ahead of Hamilton in P3 but somehow ended up coming back on track behind him.
The pace shown by the Finn was still outstanding, leaving to the imagination what he could do if he could have himself a good qualifying to work with.
On the other side of the garage, Kimi's teammate turned what was set to be a horrible weekend for him into a great one.
Sebastian Vettel started the race after a bad result in qualifying caused by a mechanical issue, as if it weren't enough he subsequently received a grid penalty that sent him to the bottom of he grid.
However, Seb's pace, together with a solid strategy from Ferrari made up for a steady progress from the German through out the race, which discretely but noticeably lifted Vettel a total of 17 (!!!) positions to reach top 5.
Seb usually finds a good rhythm around this track and this time it has been greatly timed as the result helped Ferrari collect a total of 22 points, enough to stay close from Red Bull in the constructors standings, important as we are heading into the climax of the season.
Today's special mentions are out to point scoring returnees Daniil Kvyät and Kevin Magnussen.
The 'Toro Russian' seems to have ended a long slump, a long pointless run that started at the British GP, when he last recorded a top 10 finish.
Meanwhile, the Dane has succeeded in cutting an even longer slump, not only his but his whole team's.
Kevin Magnussen arrived P10 here in Singapore after not being able to record a point since the Spanish Grand Prix, despite great efforts where he came close to do so.
The final mention goes to Checo Perez, today's underrated driver of the race.
The Mexican had to carry the team on his back for this race after the big shunt his teammate Nico Hulkenberg unfortunately suffered.
Starting from eighteenth placed due to an unfair penalty he was handed , Sergio's task was a major one, but Perez completed it amazingly, as he was able to climb 10 places in the race. A result which had a high level of importance, as Massa's P12 and Bottas' retirement meant that Sergio's eight points were enough for Force India to climb up to fourth in the championship standings, position which they look set to retain.
That's it for this weekend's race review, I hope you enjoyed it!
I'll see you lot in two weeks time for the thriller that the Malaysian GP promises to be!
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