The race started with one Scuderia Ferrari driver on pole and the other at the back of the grid, after Felipe Massa’s car failure in qualifying. So it was fitting that, at the chequered flag, it ended with one first and the other a more positive last – last of the points scorers in tenth place. Then came a slight consolation, as Felipe found himself moved up to ninth place, after Adrian Sutil was given a post-race theoretical drive-through penalty. Despite securing another fantastic win, the situation in the Constructors’ championship has not got any easier, with four races remaining. With both Red Bulls on the podium tonight, they slightly extend their lead over the Scuderia in third place.

After the start, as a strategic move, Felipe was brought straight into the pits to make his one tyre change of the race and two laps later, the Safety Car appeared for the first time, after Liuzzi stopped on track. At this point the order was Fernando, Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber and Rosberg and then most of the cars outside the top eight, plus Webber all came in to change tyres, while Felipe was now fifteenth. Fernando’s lead was under a second and Felipe was stuck in a high speed train, moving to fourteenth when Hulkenberg and Petrov ran wide.

By lap 12, Fernando had pulled out a 2.3 second lead over Vettel, with Felipe already over half a minute behind his team-mate. On lap 28, Hamilton was the first of the lead group to change tyres, followed one lap later by Fernando and Vettel who came in nose to tail and left in the same order. From then on, the two men seemed to be joined together by an invisible rope, the gap between them only fluctuating as they dealt with backmarkers. By lap 45, Felipe had worked his way up to ninth place, but Kubica in the Renault made an additional stop for fresh rubber and began to carve his way past slower cars on older tyres, including Felipe, who had to settle for tenth at the flag: a good day’s work after starting last.

Vettel never gave up pressuring Fernando, with the Spaniard having to also deal with being the first of the pair of them to tackle the backmarkers, but the two of them still traded fastest race laps, the final honour of being the quickest driver in the race going to the Ferrari man on lap 58. A win in Monza two weeks ago and another one here in Singapore: the final quartet of races is going to be a nail-biting time for everyone, starting in Suzuka, Japan in a fortnight’s time.

The fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari, the second in a row, with all of them obtained by Fernando Alonso means the Spaniard takes his twenty fifth victory from 155 Formula 1 starts. Fernando thus joins Jim Clark and Niki Lauda in the list of all-time winners, where he is now sixth equal with these two drivers. Having started last, because of technical problems in yesterday’s qualifying, Felipe Massa was initially classified tenth but was later elevated one place as a rival was disqualified. For Ferrari, this was win number 214 from 808 Grand Prix participations, the first at Singapore.

Stefano Domenicali: “This is an extraordinary result, which is down to an exceptional performance from Fernando, who once again proved what he is made of, in terms of driving ability and his mental attitude. The first and most important brick in this particular wall was put in place yesterday with pole position: if we had not started from the front, it would most likely have been impossible to overtake the Red Bull which proved to be so strong on track today, especially in the second half of the race. Qualifying was the key, this time in a negative way, to Felipe’s race also: ninth place is definitely not a result that matches his or the car’s potential, but starting last, it would have been hard to do better on a track where overtaking is very difficult. The team matched the performance of the driver, working perfectly in managing all the key moments and a major component of this victory is obviously down to everyone in Maranello, who gave their all to bring the F10 up to this level. As is traditional, I want to thank all our partners: the title sponsor Marlboro, Santander and the technical partners, first and foremost Shell, although I would actually like to name all of them. I am not the sort to feel defeated in difficult moments, but all the same I am delighted when we have happy ones like this. We have picked up two very nice wins in a row on tracks with completely different characteristics, but we are still behind in both championships: we must continue to work like this, if at all possible, multiplying our efforts to try and fight all the way to the finish. The maths will be done only at the end, on 14th November in Abu Dhabi.”

Fernando Alonso: “This win is very significant. We wanted to confirm our success in Monza at a completely different type of track and we succeeded at the end of a very hard and extremely stressful race, both for me and for the car, on a track that I like a lot and which is well suited to my driving style. After the earlier gift – the Easter surprise, as I called it - of getting pole yesterday, today it was important first and foremost to make a good start: that is what happened, even if Vettel might have been slightly quicker away than me, but here the run to the first corner is not so long and so I was able to close the door and keep the lead. On the soft tyres, we were going very well, but on the hards, the Red Bull seemed to be quicker than us. The pit stop went off perfectly, both in terms of strategy and in the way it was done in pit lane. In the second part of the race, I tried to avoid taking any sort of risk, especially when getting past the backmarkers at the same time as the yellow flags were out. There are four races to go and the championship is very open. In Spa, Sebastian, Jenson and I came away empty handed, then in Monza it was Hamilton’s turn: the dance towards the title sees the contenders see-sawing up and down, although Mark is still holding on to a slight lead. We must stay calm and concentrate on our own job, without thinking about what the others are doing: what is certain is that we will leave nothing to chance, fighting right to the very end. The F10 has improved a lot thanks to the work of all our engineers in Maranello and here at the track, and I am happy for that because now we can be on the pace at every type of circuit. We are not considered favourites for the races that lie ahead of us, but none of them are anything to be frightened about.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a very difficult race for me after everything that happened in qualifying yesterday. We chose a strategy similar to the one used for Fernando in Monaco, hoping for some help from a Safety Car which unfortunately, came out on track too early. So I was not able to overtake that many cars and then I found myself in a train behind Sutil and Hulkenberg: one or two laps later and I could have made up two or three places and had a different sort of race. The car was not too bad, given that I was always on the same set of hard tyres: only towards the end did the situation get worse and I could feel the tyre degradation which is why Kubica managed to get past me so easily. I can’t say I had much fun driving, given that I was always stuck behind another car. I had a new engine and now I only have three left which have each done one race, to rotate over the last four races of the season. I hope I will have more luck in those races than I have had this weekend!”

Chris Dyer: “A fantastic result thanks to an incredible performance from Fernando, first yesterday in qualifying and then today in the race. Honestly, I do not think we had an advantage in terms of performance over our rivals, but at least they did not seem to have enough of one to be able to overtake us comfortably. We had to get a clean start, doing quick laps when necessary, choosing the right moment for the pit stop and being ready to manage any eventual Safety Car periods: a lot of elements to put together to get the win and that’s how it turned out, with no mistakes made. All of this is also thanks to a team that worked very well, making the most of the potential of the car. As for Felipe, clearly he had to gamble on a Safety Car, given his grid position. Unfortunately, that did not work out well, because the race was neutralised too early: a few more laps and it would have been another story for him: all the same, a points finish is a good result, given the outlook at the start.”