Lewis Hamilton won from pole at Marina Bay, while Jenson Button's championship lead grew as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber lost ground.
Lewis Hamilton won the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix from pole position for McLaren-Mercedes at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on 27 September 2009. Glock and Alonso completed the podium, and Button extended his championship lead.
The 2009 Singapore Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 27 September 2009 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. It was the 14th round of the season and the second Singapore race to count towards the championship. Lewis Hamilton, the reigning World Champion, won from pole for McLaren-Mercedes, with Timo Glock second for Toyota and Fernando Alonso third.
What was at stake in the title race?
Jenson Button led the Drivers' Championship before the race by 14 points from his Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello. Sebastian Vettel, the closest Brawn challenger, sat 12 points behind Barrichello and 26 points behind Button. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was chasing a fifth straight podium, and three quarters of his 40 points had come in the previous four races.
Brawn held the Constructors' lead on 146 points, and a win in Singapore could have sealed the title. Red Bull were 40.5 points behind on 105.5, while Ferrari and McLaren were third and fourth.
Button extended his championship lead by one point to 15 over Barrichello, with three races remaining.
What had changed at the circuit?
The circuit had been reprofiled slightly. Modifications were made to turns 1, 2, 3, 13 and 14 to help overtaking, and turn 10, where high kerbs had caused many accidents in 2008, was changed as well. The pit lane entrance and exit were also altered, and the cars now joined the track after turn 1. The changes lengthened the circuit by 6 metres.
Three corners were given names. Turn 1 became Sheares, after the Benjamin Sheares Bridge that spans the expressway above the track and is named after a former president of Singapore. Turn 7 became Memorial, after the World War II memorial in the middle of the city, and turn 10 became Singapore Sling, after the island's signature drink.
What sponsorship and controversy surrounded the race?
Fernando Alonso of Renault was the only previous winner of the race, but the weekend was clouded by the race-fixing scandal of the previous year. That case had led to a suspended ban for the team. Ahead of the race, the title sponsor ING and the sponsor Mutua Madrilena ended their deals with Renault with immediate effect.
Renault removed the sponsor logos from its cars before they ran on track. Mutua Madrilena nevertheless continued to back Alonso, who was the 2005 and 2006 World Champion. Felipe Massa, the previous year's pole sitter, sat out the race with injuries from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
How did practice unfold?
The first session ended much as the previous race had, with the two Brawns on top, Barrichello ahead of Button. Renault's Romain Grosjean lost control of his car at the same corner where Nelson Piquet Jr had crashed the year before, which brought out a stoppage. Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen also had incidents, and Alonso split the two Red Bulls in fourth.
The second session was red-flagged after a heavy crash for Webber on the pit straight, which left a lot of debris on the track. Vettel finished the session two tenths of a second ahead of Alonso, with Kovalainen third and Nick Heidfeld fourth. Button was fifth, while Barrichello struggled to eleventh. Webber went on to finish the session sixth despite his earlier accident.
The third session got under way with no cars posting a time for the first 15 minutes. Hamilton then topped the timesheets, with Vettel second and Webber down in thirteenth. Rosberg was third and Kovalainen fourth. Barrichello finished sixth behind the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Heidfeld, while Button managed only fourteenth. The two Force India drivers were 16th and 17th, since the high downforce of the circuit did not suit the car.
How did qualifying end with Hamilton on pole?
The first part of qualifying began with Grosjean going down the escape road at turn 17 because of brake problems. Rosberg set the early pace, but Button, Vettel and Hamilton soon responded with their own flying laps. Raikkonen took second with three minutes left, and Giancarlo Fisichella was eliminated alongside Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari, Grosjean and Liuzzi.
In the second part Webber was the early pace-setter, but an excellent lap by Rosberg secured his place in the final part. Button struggled throughout, and after narrowly avoiding the wall on his final lap he qualified a poor twelfth. Barrichello reached the final part but then took a five-place grid penalty after a gearbox change. Nakajima, Raikkonen, Buemi and Trulli were knocked out in this session.
The top ten set their early quick laps. Barrichello spun and hit the wall hard, which brought out yellow flags. A red flag followed with 26 seconds left, and the session was effectively ended early because no one had time to get back on track. Hamilton took pole ahead of Vettel, Rosberg and Webber, while Barrichello, fifth on the timesheet, started tenth. It was the third of four red-flagged sessions that weekend, and only the third practice session had run without interruption.
Why did Heidfeld start from the pit lane?
About three hours before the race, it was announced that Heidfeld would start from the pit lane. His team had found that insufficient ballast had been fitted to his car. That move promoted everyone behind him by one place and put both Brawn cars on the clean side of the grid, which is the racing line, a significant advantage at the start.
Heidfeld's penalty was not his only problem of the weekend. The stewards later excluded his qualifying result for an underweight car, and he also had a gearbox and engine change before the race.
How did the race begin?
The race began shortly after 8pm local time, with Hamilton making a clean start from pole. Rosberg used the clean side of the track to overtake Vettel into the first corner. Alonso tried to pass Vettel too, but he was unsuccessful, which gave Webber the chance to attack Alonso on the outside at turn 7.
Both Alonso and Webber went off the track as Webber completed the move. The stewards ruled Webber's manoeuvre illegal, and on lap seven he was told to hand the place back to Alonso. This also meant letting Glock through, since the German had already passed Alonso on the first lap. Grosjean was not so lucky. He retired at the end of lap three with a recurring brake problem.
What happened under the first safety car?
On the lap after Rosberg and Hamilton pitted, an accident involving Sutil and Heidfeld brought out the safety car to clear debris. Sutil spun while trying to pass Alguersuari on the inside of turn 14. With his car facing the wrong way, he tried to rejoin as Heidfeld was taking the corner, and the collision forced both cars to retire. That was Heidfeld's first retirement since the 2007 United States Grand Prix.
Sutil was later reprimanded and fined 20,000 dollars by the stewards for dangerous driving. Most of the cars that had not yet pitted for fuel and tyres did so under the safety car, including both Brawns. The safety car did not help Rosberg, because a drive-through penalty cannot be served under those conditions. He had to pit within two laps of the restart, with the field still tightly grouped.
During the same round of stops, Alguersuari repeated the infamous mistake Massa had made at the 2008 race, leaving his pit garage with the fuel hose still attached.
How did Vettel's race fall apart?
The race restarted on the twenty-sixth lap, with Vettel now pressing Hamilton for the lead. Rosberg served his penalty on the twenty-eighth lap, which dropped him to fourteenth. Hamilton and Vettel traded fastest laps with the gap hovering just under a second. Behind them, Glock was told to keep pushing, since his team thought a pit stop could let him overtake the Red Bull.
Vettel pitted for his second stop on the thirty-ninth lap, pushing very hard. On his out lap he ran over a kerb and damaged the underside of his car, having already lost his right wing mirror. Worse was to come on the fortieth lap, when the stewards handed him a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Hamilton was then 9.2 seconds ahead of Glock, who was 7.6 seconds ahead of Alonso, as Vettel served his penalty on the forty-third lap.
Red Bull's afternoon went from bad to worse three laps later, when Webber spun out at turn 1 after a right-front brake failure. The safety car was not needed to clear his car, and that left the leaders to race on.
How did Hamilton win and who scored?
McLaren brought in both Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen for their second stops, and Glock also pitted. The lack of a safety car gave Jenson Button, who had been following Kovalainen, the chance to set a series of fast laps before his own stop. He pitted on the fifty-first lap and emerged fifth, behind Vettel and ahead of Barrichello. Barrichello had run seventh after a small problem at his second stop, so Button had a chance to extend his championship lead over his teammate.
Button closed on Vettel, who was worried about his brakes after the retirements of Webber and Alguersuari, another Red Bull-linked driver with brake trouble. Button got to within two seconds, but then appeared to develop brake problems himself. His efforts had nonetheless given him a ten-second cushion over Barrichello with two laps left.
Hamilton took the chequered flag almost two hours after the start, ahead of Glock and Alonso. Vettel and Button held on for fourth and fifth, ahead of Barrichello, Kovalainen and Kubica, who were in the final points-paying positions.
| Driver | Team | Key moment | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | Pole and a clean start | Winner |
| Timo Glock | Toyota | Passed Alonso on the first lap | Second |
| Fernando Alonso | Renault | Regained the place Webber had taken on lap seven | Third |
| Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | Drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane | Fourth |
| Jenson Button | Brawn GP | Fast laps before a stop on the fifty-first lap | Fifth |
| Nico Rosberg | Williams | Pit lane line penalty, demoted to fourteenth | Outside the points |
| Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | Spun at turn 1 after brake failure | Retired |
| Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | Started from the pit lane, collided with Sutil | Retired |
What did the result mean for the championships?
Button extended his championship lead by one point to 15 over Barrichello, with three races remaining. Vettel was 25 points behind Button, and Webber's crash meant he was officially out of the World Championship fight.
Brawn would need 12 points from the remaining three races to clinch the Constructors' title. Ferrari scored no points at Marina Bay, which allowed McLaren to close to within three points of them in the battle for third.
Why is this race remembered?
The Singapore race was the second Formula One race ever held at night. It was also the tenth Singapore Grand Prix overall.
Bernie Ecclestone had proposed a winner-takes-all medal system. Under that scheme Button would have been declared World Champion after this result, because no other driver could match his six race wins. The Olympic-style system was planned for the 2009 title but was dropped after pressure from the teams, who favoured the traditional points method.
What else happened around the event?
The race weekend was a showcase for entertainment as well as motor racing. The inaugural F1 Rocks concerts were held in Singapore, with headline acts performing nightly at Fort Canning Park between 24 and 26 September. Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button took part in fun challenges, and a separate Fuel Festival featured its own line-up of headline performers.
