text: 2010 singapore grand prix the 2010 singapore grand prix ( formally the 2010 formula 1 singapore grand prix ) was a formula one motor race held on 26 september 2010 at the marina bay street circuit , marina bay , singapore . it was the fifteenth race of the 2010 formula one season , and the third singapore grand prix held as part of the formula one world championship . the 61 - lap race was won by ferrari driver fernando alonso who started in pole position . sebastian vettel finished second for red bull , his teammate mark webber was third . alonso held off vettel to maintain his start line advantage on the first lap . lewis hamilton , who started third , fought off teammate jenson button to retain his start position . the top two remained the same through the first and only round of pit stops . webber 's team , red bull , opted to pit him early allowing him to move ahead of hamilton . the race was neutralised by the deployment of the safety car after kamui kobayashi and bruno senna crashed on lap 31 . hamilton retired after a collision with webber shortly after the race restarted on lap 36 . alonso maintained his lead throughout the remainder of the race despite pressure from vettel . the race was alonso 's second consecutive victory and his fourth of the 2010 season ; he had started from pole position to win the italian grand prix two weeks earlier . the win meant alonso moved into second place in the world drivers ' championship , eleven points behind leader webber . hamilton 's retirement meant he slipped to third , while vettel 's second - place finish moved him into fourth ahead of jenson button . in the constructors ' championship red bull extended its lead to twenty - four points ahead of mclaren . ferrari was a further forty points behind , with four races remaining in the season . report background the 2010 singapore grand prix was the fifteenth round of the 2010 formula one season after taking a two - week break from the previous race in italy . the event was held at the marina bay street circuit in marina bay , singapore on 26 september 2010 . the grand prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each . the teams ( also known as constructors ) were : mclaren , mercedes , red bull , ferrari , williams , renault , force india , toro rosso , lotus , hispania , sauber and virgin . tyre supplier bridgestone brought four different tyre types to the race : two dry compounds ( super soft " options " and medium " primes " ) and two wet - weather compounds ( intermediate and full wets ) . the soft compounds were denoted by a green stripe on their side - walls ; the wet compound tyres were identified by a green line at the bottom of their central groove . the rules of 2010 grand prix races stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during a race unless the driver used any one of two wet - weather compounds . each driver was limited to eleven sets of dry tyres for the weekend . before the race , red bull driver mark webber led the drivers ' championship with 187 points . he was ahead of lewis hamilton in second with 182 points and fernando alonso in third on 166 points . hamilton 's teammate jenson button was fourth with 165 points , and sebastian vettel was fifth on 163 points . red bull was leading the constructors ' championship with 350 points ; mclaren and ferrari were second and third with 347 and 290 points respectively , while mercedes on 158 and renault with 127 points contended for fourth position . red bull , mclaren , and ferrari had won the previous fourteen races of the season ( with victories being taken by alonso , button , vettel , hamilton and webber ) . felipe massa ( twice ) , robert kubica had finished in second place , and nico rosberg ( three times ) , massa ( twice ) and kubica ( once ) had all finished in third . singapore was a critical race in the championship as all five drivers had a chance to take the lead with a victory . the situation was made difficult for alonso as he had used his allocation of eight engines following the italian grand prix , and to replace one would incur a ten - place grid penalty . his rivals each had at least one untouched engine in reserve ; webber had two . nevertheless , alonso set himself the target to score points in singapore . he also acknowledged that his car was not the fastest in the field and felt he needed five podiums in the season 's five remaining races . webber stated that he was expecting singapore to be a tough weekend for him after he had retired from the event in 2008 and 2009 , but felt there was still some time before a driver clinched the championship . after crashing out of the first lap of the italian grand prix , hamilton said he would push hard to stay in the running for the championship : " i 'll take each race as it comes , but i 'll also be making sure i get to the finish of the next five races , that 's more important than anything . i go to singapore to win . " hamilton felt alonso was the favourite to win the singapore grand prix and viewed the spanish driver as his main rival for the drivers ' championship which was shared by red bull team principal christian horner . button himself believed alonso would have an extra advantage as the spaniard 's teammate massa was out of contention for the title . the marina bay street circuit was resurfaced between turns three and seven , along with turns thirteen to seventeen , after drivers complained about its following the 2009 singapore grand prix . the singapore sling chicane was adjusted to allow for a more gradual curve to exist which enabled a safer exit for drivers . the outside wall at turn 21 was brought closer towards the race track to cover up half of a drain which was previously exposed to cars , and the pit lane was resurfaced to allow for a smoother exit for drivers rejoining the circuit . hamilton , a vocal critic of the circuit 's condition , described it as " dangerous " because it had remained uneven , and said the singapore sling chicane was " the worst corner i have ever driven in formula one " despite the safety modifications made to it . the organisers of the singapore grand prix introduced a new machine to clean the surface of the track after drivers had problems with a dusty and slippery track surface in the previous year 's race . two days before the first practice session , drivers expressed concerns over low visibility caused by rain showers combined with the glare from the circuit lighting . there were two driver changes heading into the grand prix . hispania racing announced that sakon yamamoto , one of the team 's drivers since the tenth race of the season , was to be replaced for the weekend by the team 's reserve driver christian klien because he was suffering from food poisoning . several journalists noticed a seemingly healthy yamamoto in the paddock , suggesting that he had been dropped for sponsorship reasons instead . team principal colin kolles confirmed that the arrangement would be for one race and yamamoto would return to the cockpit at suzuka . pedro de la rosa was summarily dropped by sauber and replaced by pirelli test driver nick heidfeld , who last drove for the sauber team in 2009 . the change was made because of de la rosa 's poor performance relative to that of teammate kamui kobayashi , and heidfeld 's knowledge of the marina bay street circuit and the yas marina circuit . several teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event . mclaren , red bull , and williams all revised their front wings . mclaren 's revision was designed to separate airflow into two separate channels , with both directing airflow around the outside of the car 's front tyres . red bull 's design , used in the friday practice sessions , had two vertical slots to the rear of its endplate along with another to avoid creating a vortex when it operated with the planes and endplate . a previous design , debuted at the british grand prix , was used both in qualifying and in the race . in addition , the team used a revised diffuser to allow for better management of airflow to the top of the diffuser 's side section . williams ' design debuted for the first time and was designed to make the tyre act like a diffuser which took air in to improve its efficiency . practice and qualifying sessions three practice sessions — two on friday and a third on saturday — were held before the main sunday race . the friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted ninety minutes . the third session was held on saturday morning and lasted an hour . the first practice session was initially held on a wet track with a clear sky after rainstorms earlier in the day left standing water on parts of the circuit , and high humidity slowed the drying process . these conditions meant drivers used intermediate tyres first before dry tyres were utilised in the session 's closing minutes . webber set the fastest time of the first session with a late lap of 1 : 54 . 589 , one - tenth of a second faster than michael schumacher in second who was briefly quickest before webber set his lap . adrian sutil , with a lap of 1 : 58 . 827 , was third fastest , ahead of vettel and jaime alguersuari . button , vitantonio liuzzi , sébastien buemi , kubica , and vitaly petrov rounded out the session 's top ten fastest drivers . in the second practice session , when the track was still damp in some sections , vettel set the fastest time of the night , a lap of 1 : 46 . 660 on super - soft tyres ; webber finished with the second fastest lap . button drove aggressively and battled vettel for the fastest time throughout before he ended with the third quickest lap , half a second off vettel 's pace . alonso , who was fourth fastest , ran wide at turn 17 while on a quick lap and slid down the access road at the next corner ; he stalled while attempting to rejoin the track and abandoned his car requiring marshals to push his ferrari away from the track . hamilton was fifth , with barrichello and massa in sixth and seventh places . the two mercedes drivers were eighth and tenth ; with nico rosberg ahead of schumacher , separated by kubica . sutil 's force india was launched into the air when he hit a kerb at the singapore sling chicane and his front - left suspension was broken upon landing requiring him to miss half the session , and alguersuari 's left - rear tyre made contact with a barrier but he avoided major damage to his car . sutil was fined us $ 10 , 000 ( £ 6 , 300 ) by the stewards because he attempted to drive back to the pit lane in his damaged car and did not stop at a safe position on the circuit . rain hit the circuit on saturday afternoon , ending three hours before the session started , resulting in several damp patches on the circuit though the air temperature remained hot . different sections of the circuit dried out at different rates making it difficult for drivers to tell precisely how wet or dry certain corners were . the teams ran intermediate tyres before switching to the super - soft tyre as the session progressed . some drivers ran deep into turn five . vettel was the fastest driver of the session with a time of 1 : 48 . 028 set in the last twenty minutes of the one - hour period . the time was four - tenths faster than championship rival alonso . hamilton was third fastest , two - thousandths of a second in front of massa . rosberg was fifth , ahead of webber and nico hülkenberg . kubica , sutil and buemi completed the top ten ahead of qualifying . hispania racing driver bruno senna 's right - rear tyre got onto a white line at the singapore sling chicane and spun . senna later brushed a wall entering the esplanade bridge in the final minute and stopped his car , causing the yellow - flags to be shown ; drivers were unable to improve on their lap times because of the limited time available . the qualifying session held on saturday afternoon was split into three parts . the first part ran for twenty minutes and eliminated the cars that finished the session eighteenth or lower from qualifying . the second part of qualifying lasted fifteen minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions eleven to seventeen . the final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth and decided pole position . cars which competed in the final qualifying session were not allowed to change tyres before the race ; these started the race fitted with the tyres with which they set their quickest lap times . it was held in dry weather conditions . alonso was fastest in the first and third sessions , and clinched his second consecutive pole position with a lap time of 1 : 45 . 390 which he set on his first run of the third session . he was restricted to one timed lap in the second session because of an engine mapping problem , which meant ferrari immediately re - programmed alonso 's engine upon discovering the issue . alonso was joined on the front row of the grid by vettel , who recorded a lap 0 . 067 seconds off alonso 's pace , and felt he could have taken pole position as he misjudged a gap while following schumacher and brushed the wall exiting the singapore sling chicane . hamilton qualified third and was happy with his starting position despite losing downforce on the track 's final sector while running in teammate button 's tow . button secured fourth and pushed hard in the final session which meant he had slight damage to his rear tyres on his first run , and could not get the optimum tyre temperature in the first section on his second run . webber managed fifth and admitted that he was struggling to find a good rhythm when driving the circuit . barrichello qualified in sixth . the two mercedes drivers took seventh and ninth ; rosberg ahead of schumacher . rosberg believed that he should have performed better in qualifying than in the practice session , as he felt the soft tyres lacked grip ; schumacher was satisfied with his qualifying performance . the mercedes drivers were separated by kubica , in the faster renault , who was happy with his lap time despite his car sliding from a lack of grip . kobayashi rounded out the top ten qualifiers . alguersuari , who qualified eleventh , was the fastest driver not advancing to the final session . his best time of 1 : 47 . 666 was 1 . 8 seconds slower than vettel 's pace in the second session . alguersuari 's time was followed by hülkenberg , who was backed up by sutil on his first run in the second session , and described his car 's balance like " night and day " . however , hülkenberg was demoted five positions on the grid after the williams team changed his gearbox after the race at monza . as a consequence , petrov inherited 12th position having pushed hard on a set of option tyres . he had lost control of his car after he went deep , under braking , heading for turn five ( a corner that was damp from the earlier rain shower ) , with his right - rear wheel hitting the wall . petrov 's crash meant he took no further part in qualifying . he was ahead of buemi , in the slower of the two torro rossos , who lost a large amount of grip and got stuck in traffic . heidfeld took 14th ahead of his fellow countryman sutil in 15th . liuzzi had a problem with his front brakes on the first run of the second session and managed 16th . timo glock , heikki kovalainen and lucas di grassi were the quickest drivers unable to advance beyond the first part of qualifying . the eleventh row of the grid was filled by jarno trulli and klien . senna took 23rd . massa was unable to set a timed lap as his gearbox seized without warning forcing him to stop on the circuit ; ferrari chose to replace his engine and gearbox as a precaution . massa 's engine change was his ninth of the season which incurred a ten - place grid penalty , but since he started from 24th position , the penalty was nullified . race the race began at 20 : 00 sst ( utc + 8 ) . the conditions on the grid were dry and cloudy before the race ; the air temperature ranged between 29 – 32 ° c ( 84 – 90 ° f ) and the track temperature was 31 ° c ( 88 ° f ) ; no rain was predicted during the race . most drivers started on the super - soft compound tyre . alguersuari started from the pit lane as his team discovered a coolant leak in his car . as the five red lights went out to signal the start of the race , alonso maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner and withstood vettel 's attempt to pass him . button got an early advantage over teammate hamilton , but hamilton fought him to retain third place . barrichello fell from sixth to eighth place . kubica passed rosberg at the start but the german regained the sixth position in the same lap . further down the field , the early momentum was broken when heidfeld , attempting to overtake both force india cars at turn seven , hit sutil 's rear , damaging his front wing . liuzzi subsequently went into heidfeld 's rear - end after the latter squeezed him towards the wall , causing front wing damage to his car . heidfeld made a pit stop for a replacement front wing at the end of lap one , while massa made his only pit stop of the race for the medium compound tyres . liuzzi pulled over to the inside of the circuit on the third lap , at turn ten , with left - rear suspension damage resulting from contact with the wall . his retirement triggered the deployment of the safety car as marshals were required to push his car away from the track . webber was the only top running driver to pit for the medium compound tyres during the safety car period on lap four . red bull had told webber to enter the pit lane , assuring him that it was the right decision , though he questioned the move . several drivers towards the rear also chose to pit . racing resumed at the end of lap five when the safety car pulled into the pit lane . webber immediately pushed hard and passed glock for tenth position and a line of cars began to form behind glock . alonso began to pull away from vettel as he set consecutive fastest laps . webber passed kobayashi at turn five to move into ninth on lap seven , and withstood an attempt to kobayashi to reclaim ninth heading into turn seven . hülkenberg and petrov 's wheels made contact and both drivers went off the circuit on the same lap ; hülkenberg managed to move ahead of petrov with massa taking advantage to pass the renault driver . webber caught schumacher on lap 11 and passed the mercedes driver on the same lap at turn five after schumacher ran wide . vettel was told by his team to cool his brakes on the same lap as alonso continued to extend his lead . sutil got ahead of glock for eleventh place three laps later and started to pull away from the queue behind glock . hülkenberg ran wide at turn seven on the same lap but did not lose any positions . hülkenberg passed glock in the first sector of the track for twelfth on lap 16 . vettel and alonso traded fastest laps as they pushed hard in their efforts to build up a sufficient lead over webber to maintain first and second positions after their pit stops . massa , petrov , buemi and alguersuari all passed glock on lap 17 thus eliminating the queue of cars . by lap 20 , alonso was leading vettel by 3 . 2 seconds ; he in turn was a further 11 seconds in front of hamilton . button was in fourth , 20 seconds behind alonso , with rosberg 3 . 3 seconds behind the world champion in fifth . webber changed his engine settings to give him a higher top speed in an attempt to get past barrichello and decrease the time gap to hamilton on lap 22 . he avoided colliding with an armco barrier at the entry of turn eighteen one lap later . hamilton was told to increase his pace on the 24th lap to try to stay ahead of webber after the pit stop phase . but his car had a large amount of oversteer , as his rear , super - soft , compound tyres began to deteriorate , causing his lap times to drop off the leader 's pace . trulli drove to the pit lane and was pushed by his mechanics into the lotus garage to retire with an hydraulic issue on lap 28 . hamilton made the first scheduled stop for tyres on lap 29 and re - emerged in eighth position behind webber . alonso and vettel made simultaneous pit stops on the following lap ; alonso retained his lead despite vettel 's pit crew completing their pit stop first ; vettel avoided stalling and drove away in second gear . with newer tyres which provided more grip , vettel recorded faster lap times than alonso to close the time gap as the two came across slower cars . kobayashi attempted to pass around the outside of schumacher on lap 31 but the two made contact with schumacher subsequently hitting a barrier . kobayashi damaged his sauber , losing control of his rear - end , and crashed at the exit of turn 18 after his front wing was knocked off entering the corner . senna was slow to react and buried his hispania nose - first into the barrier alongside kobayashi . these incidents called for the race 's second safety car period to allow removal of both cars from the circuit which were on the racing line . klien was pushed into his garage to retire with an hydraulic problem on lap 34 . the safety car pulled into the pit lane at the end of lap 35 and the race resumed with alonso leading . hamilton got a run on webber who was caught behind di grassi and lined up an overtaking manoeuvre on the red bull driver , and overtook him on the raffles boulevard straight . webber 's front - right tyre hit hamilton 's left - rear tyre at turn seven . he escaped without significant damage , while hamilton had a punctured tyre and pulled off the circuit to retire for the second consecutive race . however , webber did feel vibrations on the front - end of his red bull . his tyre , which made contact with hamilton 's , had been pushed 5 millimetres off its normal mounting on the rim , and button drew closer to webber who managed to maintain a good pace . on lap 37 , schumacher went into heidfeld 's rear - end and limped back to the pit lane to replace his damaged front wing creating sparks as it was dragged along the surface of the track , while heidfeld retired after hitting a barrier . button was urged by his mclaren mechanics on lap 42 to push webber whose tyres were older , while vettel gradually closed the gap with alonso . hülkenberg , in ninth , made a mistake on lap 44 which allowed massa to momentarily take advantage , but he fought back and retained ninth position . kubica sustained a right - rear puncture on lap 46 and made a pit stop on the same lap , rejoining in 13th . upfront , vettel had reduced the gap between himself and alonso to one second by lap 50 as the pair continued to trade the fastest lap time . glock started to slow on the circuit and drove to the pit lane to retire . it was later confirmed that his retirement was the result of an issue with his car 's hydraulic system . with the advantage of having newer tyres which gave him more grip , kubica was able to make short work of alguersuari , buemi , his teammate petrov , massa , hülkenberg , and sutil ( who was holding up a queue of five cars ) in the space of nine laps . vettel continued to pressure race - leader alonso in the closing laps as the pair began to encounter slower cars . kovalainen and buemi made contact in the final sector of the lap , with the lotus driver spinning around in front of the toro rosso , who was quick to avoid a head - on collision . kovalainen 's car suffered a cracked fuel tank pressure release valve and he limped back to the pit lane , the rear of his lotus catching fire during the final few turns . kovalainen aborted the pit entry , but did not make it much further as his car was consumed by the fire . kovalainen stopped on the main straight and got out of his car to extinguish the fire himself after members of the williams team handed him a fire extinguisher . as kovalainen was off the racing line , yellow flags were waved in the final corners instead of a safety car deployment . vettel drew to within two - tenths of a second behind alonso as the final lap started , and came across sutil , hülkenberg , petrov and massa ; both drivers managed to get past petrov , and alonso maintained the first position heading into the final sector of the track . the yellow flag for kovalainen 's car meant that vettel 's final chance of an overtake , into the final corner , was denied , and alonso took the checkered flag on lap 61 to win the race , 0 . 293 seconds ahead of vettel . alonso secured the first , and , as of 2015 , the only grand chelem ( leading the entire race from pole position with fastest lap ) of his career as well as the first since schumacher achieved the feat at the 2004 hungarian grand prix . webber was third , 1 . 2 seconds ahead of button in fourth . rosberg , barrichello and kubica took the next three positions . sutil held off hülkenberg in the final sector of the track for eighth and ninth on the line with massa in tenth . petrov , alguersuari , schumacher and buemi finished one lap behind alonso , with di grassi and kovalainen ( despite his retirement ) the last of the classified finishers . post - race the top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and , in a later press conference , alonso said that his victory " meant a lot " for him to remain in contention for the drivers ' championship and thanked his team for their efforts during the weekend . alonso added that ferrari would give " 100 per cent " in the season 's four remaining races and said the battle remained " very tight " despite scoring the most points out of all the drivers in the previous five races . vettel said that he was hoping that alonso would make a mistake but acknowledged that it was difficult to overtake on the circuit . he also said that attempting to overtake alonso in the final stages of the race was " the only chance " that he had of winning the race and hoped that the remaining tracks would suit his red bull car . webber stated that he was " very happy " with his third - place finish and said the entire race weekend was the toughest of the year on him . he also said that he did not feel comfortable throughout the weekend and that he was staying composed through certain sections of the race . alonso 's win his been regarded as one of the best of his formula one career . former formula one driver martin brundle described it as : " one of those races in which two drivers elevate themselves on to a separate plane from their rivals . " it reminded him of the 2000 japanese grand prix where schumacher won that year 's world championship from his main rival mika häkkinen . will saunders of said in 2014 that alonso : " had little right to wrestle a performance of such magnitude out of either himself or the ferrari , yet he found another level that day . " after the eventual conclusion of the championship in vettel 's favour by four points , saunders said : " alonso 's performance in singapore showed he would have been an equally deserving championship victor . " espn listed it as one of alonso 's top ten races while driving for ferrari . the stewards immediately investigated the accident between webber and hamilton on lap 37 and took no further action . hamilton later reviewed the incident on video and was adamant that he was not at fault saying that he was " unlucky " for the second consecutive grand prix . webber stated the contact nearly forced him to retire and compared the accident to hamilton 's collision with massa at the italian grand prix . brundle felt hamilton should have given webber more space and agreed with the stewards ' decision . bridgestone director of motorsport tyre development hirohide hamashima stated webber was " very lucky " to make the finish and that if left hand high - speed corners were installed on the track , the tyre would have moved more frequently and lost its pressure . horner had also admitted that webber had been lucky with his tyre lasting for a long distance . schumacher and heidfeld 's accident on lap 37 was investigated by the stewards who took no further action after deciding it was a " racing incident " . heidfeld felt schumacher had braked too late and hoped that he would have had a better finishing position . schumacher himself said that he was not happy with his first race in singapore but enjoyed the second half of the race . bbc pundit , and former team principal , eddie jordan was highly critical of schumacher arguing that the german driver should have been sacked by mercedes to prevent him from being " slaughtered " in the event he was unable to win another race . mercedes team principal ross brawn came to schumacher 's defense and said his team was " happy " with his contribution . motorsport pundits criticised kovalainen 's decision to stop his car on the pit straight after it had caught fire and argued that he was " irresponsible " . kovalainen defended his action arguing that it had not been safe to drive his lotus into the pitlane . nevertheless , kovalainen 's fire was voted the moment of the year by readers of autosport magazine in december 2010 at the autosport awards held in london . sutil was given a 20 - second time penalty by the stewards as he was deemed to gain an advantage by taking the outside line at turn seven on the first lap . this demoted him from eighth to tenth , and promoted hülkenberg from ninth to eighth and massa from tenth to ninth . following a protest from force india , hülkenberg was issued a 20 - second time penalty after the stewards deemed him to have gained an advantage by corner cutting . this ruling meant hülkenberg was demoted to tenth while massa moved up to eighth and sutil inherited ninth . force india withdrew an appeal of sutil 's penalty following the decision , and williams technical director sam michael said that his team had accepted the stewards ' judgement . the stewards elected not to penalise senna after examining a video of his collision with the stationary kobayashi . kobayashi admitted that he was at fault for his retirement and senna believed the marshals were late reacting to kobayashi 's accident and felt his own accident was unavoidable . as a consequence of the race , webber 's third - place finish allowed him to increase his lead in the world drivers ' championship . alonso 's victory allowed him to move up into second place , eleven points behind webber . hamilton 's retirement meant that he slipped to third place , nine points behind alonso . vettel 's second - place finish resulted in him moving into fourth place ahead of button . in the world constructors ' championship , red bull 's strong finish allowed them to draw further ahead of mclaren who were now twenty - four points behind . ferrari remained in third on 319 points , forty points behind mclaren . mercedes increased their points advantage over renault to thirty - five with four races remaining in the season . classification qualifying notes ^ – nico hülkenberg was given a five - place grid penalty for changing his gearbox after the italian grand prix . ^ – felipe massa failed to set a lap time after stopping on the circuit in the first part of the qualifying session . ^ – ferrari replaced massa 's gearbox and engine – his ninth for the season – after his stoppage in qualifying ; massa could not be penalised because he had already qualified last after failing to set a time . race notes ^ – adrian sutil was penalised 20 seconds post - race for illegally gaining an advantage at turn seven on the first lap . ^ – following a protest by force india , hülkenberg was penalised 20 seconds post - race for illegally gaining an advantage . ^ – jaime alguersuari started from the pit lane following a coolant leak before the race . championship standings after the race bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming world champion . note : only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings .