Alonso dazzles under lights

The former World champion held himself admirably through the chaotic interludes to post Renault’s first victory since the Japanese GP two years ago. Alan Henry reports.

Lewis Hamilton stretched his World Championship lead to seven points as his main rival Felipe Massa’s prospects of winning the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix evaporated in a Ferrari refuelling fiasco.

The British driver’s McLaren-Mercedes finished third behind his former team-mate Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard notching up Renault’s first victory since he won in Japan two years ago. Splitting the old McLaren sparring partners in this nig ht race held on a street circuit was Nico Rosberg, son of the 1982 world champion Keke, scoring his best ever result in his Williams-Toyota.

The race unravelled spectacularly for Massa after he came in from the lead for his first refuelling stop in a flurry of pit-lane activity triggered by Nelson Piquet crashing his Renault, Hamilton following close behind.

Amid his team’s anxiety that he retain his lead over his McLaren rival, the Brazilian accelerated out of his pit with his car’s refuelling hose still attached. He finally stopped at the end of the pit lane followed by his out-of-breath mechanics who ran up, cheered by the McLaren crew, and wrenched out the hose after considerable effort. To add insult to injury, Massa incurred a drive-through penalty for an “unsafe release from a pit stop” because he had almost collided with another car while leaving the pit with the hose.

The McLaren principal, Ron Dennis, admitted that after the incident his team had recommended to Hamilton that he hold on to third place rather than push Rosberg for second. “Today’s race was a very exciting one,” he said. “In the last few laps we advised Lewis not to attempt to overtake Nico but instead settle for third and the seven-point lead in the drivers’ championship.”

Hamilton, who once again drove a surprisingly mature race, agreed with the strategy. “I honestly can’t complain,” he said. “I didn’t want to take chances, particularly because the Ferraris were outside the points. It is a good result, coming here for the first time and scoring points and finishing on the podium. I am looking forward to coming here again next year and maybe we can try to win.”

Hamilton now leads the World Championship on 84 points, ahead of Massa, with 30 points still to be raced for in the remaining three events of the season in Japan, China and Brazil.

It emerged later that Massa had been erroneously signalled back into the race by one of the pit crew, who was manually operating the green lights that signal to the driver whether it is safe to rejoin the race. These are normally electronically linked to the release handle on the fuel nozzle on the side of the car, so when the nozzle is uncoupled the green light automatically goes on. On this occasion, because Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari was queuing behind Massa, the automatic signalling system was disconnected in order to speed up the process.

The “go button” was mistakenly pressed prematurely and Massa moved off with the hose still attached, knocking over a team mechanic, Claudi Berscini, who was uninjured.

“It is hard to deal with losing a race in this fashion — a race that was within our grasp, with a car that was just the way I wanted it,” said Massa. “We had a good strategy and all the signs were there that we could get a one-two finish.

“But things can change in a moment and that is what happened today. At the pit stop one of the guys made a mistake. But we are only human. Each of us always tries to do our best and these things can happen. With the safety car on the track I did not lose a lap, but I got a drive-through penalty and later got a left-rear puncture.”

He finally went back into the race 18th but was then called back in to take his drive-through penalty, which consigned him to running right at the back. He finished 13th after starting from pole position.

Raikkonen, the world champion, made the day even worse for Ferrari by crashing into a wall while running fifth with a handful of laps to go.

“A black day,” said the Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali. “We had the potential to finish first and second but we didn’t even pick up a point.”