On Sunday Nico Rosberg became just the 16th man to reach 200 Grand Prix starts – and he did it in some style…
- Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Grand Prix start with his 22nd career victory, which moves him level with Damon Hill for joint 13th on the all-time winners list.
- Rosberg is the third driver take victory on his 200th start, following in the wheel tracks of Michael Schumacher (Europe 2004) and Jenson Button (Hungary 2011).
- It was Rosberg’s eighth victory of the season, and he now has an eight-point lead over team mate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.
- Rosberg is the first non-champion to win in Singapore, though might he be champion soon? The omens look good – the winning driver at Marina Bay has gone on to win the title in four of the last five years…
- Rosberg beat Daniel Ricciardo by 0.488s – the second time that the Singapore Grand Prix has been won by less than one second. However, the smallest winning margin in the history of the race remains Alonso’s 0.293s defeat of Sebastian Vettel in 2010.
Daniel Ricciardo has now scored four podiums in the last five races. © Sutton Images
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The race wasn’t just close, it was fast too: Rosberg, Ricciardo, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen all came home in under 1 hour 56 minutes – that’s the quickest the top four runners have ever reached the flag in Singapore.
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Why was the race so fast? Well for a start there was only one safety car interruption, which is one fewer than last year, but did at least maintain Singapore’s record for having had a safety car appearance in every race to date. There have now been 14 deployments in nine races.
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Ricciardo finished second for the fourth time this season, and the fifth time in his career. The Australian now has four podiums in the last five races.
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Ricciardo also claimed fastest lap for the third time this season and seventh time in his career. It was Red Bull’s 50th fastest lap in F1, the Milton Keynes team being the fifth constructor (after Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Lotus) to reach that tally.
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What's more, Ricciardo's lap of 1m 47.187s is a new lap record for Marina Bay - nearly a full second faster than the previous benchmark set by Fernando Alonso in 2010.
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Lewis Hamilton finished third for the third time this season, giving Mercedes their first double podium finish in Singapore. However, the record for no team having scored a one-two at Marina Bay remains.
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Having been back on the podium in Monza, Ferrari missed the podium for the sixth time this season in Singapore, with Kimi Raikkonen fourth and Sebastian Vettel fifth.
Kevin Magnussen gave Renault just their second points finish of the year with a tenacious drive to 10th. © Sutton Images
- For Vettel, fifth was quite the achievement given he lined up 22nd on the grid (21st with Grosjean’s failure to make the start). It was just the third time in his career that the German has started 20th or lower on the grid, and he’s now converted two of those starts into points finishes.
- Fernando Alonso picked up his third seventh-place finish in five races, but McLaren team mate Jenson Button wasn’t quite so lucky, retiring his car for the fifth time this season and third time in five races.
- There were better fortunes for Button’s former team mate Kevin Magnussen however who collected one point for finishing 10th – just the second time this season that he and Renault have made it into the points.
- Daniil Kvyat also made a welcome return to the points after a four-race barren spell. Ninth place represents the Russian’s best finish since he finished third in China while still with Red Bull. Singapore is the first weekend since he rejoined Toro Rosso that Kvyat has qualified and finished in the top ten.
- For the sixth time this season, Haas finished just outside the points, with the unlucky Esteban Gutierrez claiming his fifth 11th-place finish of the year. The Mexican is still yet to score a point in 2016.
- And speaking of a failure to score points, Williams didn't get either car home in the top ten for just the second time this season. For Valtteri Bottas that meant the end of a four-race points streak and a 17-race run of classified finishes.
- Nico Hulkenberg was another to have a points-streak broken, this time at five races after his first lap retirement. Team mate Sergio Perez however extended his own points run to four races, his eighth place finish allowing Force India to reclaim fourth place in the constructors’ standings from Williams.
