Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel positioned himself as the main challenger to Fernando Alonso's Formula One title chances by earning his second straight Singapore Grand Prix win on Sunday, jumping up to second place in the drivers' championship.
Vettel inherited the lead from pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who led the race until he suffered a gearbox failure on lap 23 of 59 and had to retire. It was defending champion Vettel's second win of the season after Bahrain and he reinvigorated his chances of earning a third straight title.
"We benefited a little bit from Lewis' failure," Vettel said. "We had a very, very strong pace all weekend and a good start, which got us in the hunt.
"I am just incredibly happy and proud."
Vettel had to defend his win both on the track and in the stewards' room after the race, having been called in to explain an incident behind the safety car when he hit the brakes unexpectedly at the exit of a corner, forcing second-place driver Jenson Button of McLaren to quickly swerve, with a collision narrowly avoided. Stewards cleared him of wrongdoing.
Hamilton suffered his third non-finish in five races - interspersed with two wins - as his gearbox finally gave up, having leaked fluid for three to four laps before he retired.
"It's heartbreaking not to have finished the race today," Hamilton said. "We definitely had the pace to win this weekend. In fact, before I retired, I was cruising."
Button was right on the tail of Vettel when racing resumed after the safety car with 18 laps to go, but said his car felt unbalanced in the closing stages, and he was not able to challenge the German.
The race was stopped when it reached the twohour time limit, two laps before its scheduled finish, chiefly due to two safety car periods.
Alonso finished third in his Ferrari, with his championship lead trimmed from 37 to 29 points with six races to go, giving Vettel fresh impetus as he seeks to join Juan-Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the only men to have won three straight F1 titles.
"It looks better than before," Vettel said. "We have a lot of races left, the car seems to be competitive and we just have to use the momentum."
