You are magic, screams Ferrari as Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix

"Yes, you did it! You're great, you're magic," the Ferrari crew sang to Sebastian Vettel as he scoredhis third victory of the season - and his fourth in Singapore at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. A huge crowd of around 90,000 had flocked to the circuit to watch the night race. The race in Singapore witnessed its share of incidents that led to minor crashes and early retirements.  While the track proved great for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen came in third, it proved to be a disaster for championship leader Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes as he retired for the first time in 2015 after technical problems on his car.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull came in second, a mere 1.4 seconds behind the winner. The Grand Prix saw two safety-car periods.

As Ferrari secured their first double podium since 2013, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes finished fourth, cutting Hamilton's championship lead to 41 points. He was ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat. Sergio Perez was seventh for Force India, followed by the Toro Rossos of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, with Sauber’s Felipe Nasr completing the first ten with points.

It was the first time Ferrari had both drivers on the podium this season - and only the second time that Mercedes had missed it completely. For Ricciardo and Raikkonen, it was their second podium of 2015.

Vettel had raced from pole into an early lead at the start, heading Ricciardo by a full three seconds after completion of the first lap. His advantage was neutralised on lap 14 when Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg ran into the Williams of Felipe Massa as he exited the pit lane. This brought out the the virtual  safety car first and then the actual safety car. Hulkenberg retired immediately but for causing this incident, he was given a three-place grid penalty for the next Japanese Grand Prix.

Somewhere around lap 27 Hamilton started losing power. A few laps later he was forced to retire. A few laps later one could hear Vettel scream on his radio "There is a man on the track, man on the track. " The trespasser immediately jumped back over the barriers. But the incident brought out the safety car back on track. That allowed everyone to make their second stops, forcing everyone to re-strategise when racing resumed on lap 41. Vettel dominated the race and after 61 laps raced home to win.

Along with Hamilton and Hulkenberg, the other retirements were the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, Felipe Massa of Williams (he never really recovered from his clash with Hulkenberg) and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean. Grand Prix debutant Alexander Rossi of Marussia came in 14^th.

It was a first time since 2012 for Ferrari to have started a race from pole position. In terms of the weather, it was very hot and sticky - the ambient temperature was around 29 degrees C while the track temperature was 36 degrees C.