Nico Rosberg wins Singapore GP to retake championship lead

Nico Rosberg has won the 2016 Singapore GP, and retaken the championship lead from his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, who finished third. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo came in second, just over 0.4 seconds behind the leading Mercedes.

The Singapore GP started with Rosberg on pole position, with Ricciardo next to him. Lewis Hamilton started from the second row as he qualified third on Saturday. There was a collision between Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz at the start, as both of them tried to overtake the slow-starting Red Bull of Max Verstappen. This pushed Hulkenberg's Force India into the pit wall, eliminating him from the race.

Meanwhile, Rosberg managed to secure a lead over Ricciardo, while Hamilton was clearly struggling to keep up in his Mercedes. Things took an interesting turn when Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was successfully able to overtake Hamilton on lap 33.

Lewis Hamilton was then pushed to a three stop strategy, switching from soft tyres to softs, and eventually to super softs on lap 45. Ferrari did try to emulate this strategy by switching Raikkonen to super softs on lap 46, but somehow Hamilton managed to surpass the Ferrari, thus taking the last step on the podium.

Things again started to look interesting at the front when Mercedes missed bringing in Nico Rosberg for a tyre change due to high pit lane traffic. Rosberg had a lead of 25.8 seconds on lap 48, but Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo managed to cut 4 seconds in the next one lap, benefitting from his new set of super softs. With Ricciardo closing the gap by around 3 seconds every lap, Rosberg was facing a tough task in the final laps. But the German driver managed his 28 lap old soft tyres brilliantly, thus securing a win in his 200th Grand Prix.

Just on the tail of Lewis Hamilton was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, while the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel finished fifth. Vettel was also voted the Driver of the Day by fans after his amazing run from the last on the grid to finish fifth. He was followed by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, McLaren's Fernando Alonso, and Force India's Sergio Perez. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten of the 2016 Singapore GP.

Current driver standings are as follows:
1. Nico Rosberg - 273
2. Lewis Hamilton - 265
3. Daniel Ricciardo - 179