Hamilton's car puts brakes on title bid

The explosions that echoed around Singapore's night sky seconds after officials called time on this marathon two-hour grand prix, causing many at the circuit to jump in alarm, turned out to be nothing more sinister than fireworks. They might have been cannons sounding a death knell for Lewis Hamilton's championship hopes.

A fourth retirement in seven races, this time the result of gearbox failure, left Hamilton 52 points behind Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso with just six races of the season remaining.

It is not an insurmountable deficit but it is getting close to it when you factor in Alonso's extraordinary ability to pick up points, and Ferrari's astonishing reliability.

The only race in which the Spaniard did not finish was in Belgium when he nearly had his head taken off by Lotus's Romain Grosjean. He has otherwise been a model of consistency in a relatively uncompetitive car, finishing in the points at every single grand prix.

Alonso picked up yet another valuable podium yesterday (Sunday), profiting from Hamilton's misfortune. The Briton's gearbox failure on lap 23 left Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button to fight over the victory.

The German won that battle, although the result was only confirmed three hours later after a stewards' inquiry into an incident behind a safety car in which Button swerved to avoid the Red Bull. No action was deemed necessary.

Vettel's win lifted him into second in the championship, 29 points behind Alonso and ready for a 2010-style late assault on the title.

It was so, so cruel on Hamilton, who felt he had been "cruising" to victory. Funnily enough, the man whose future has been the subject of so much speculation over the last month, who looked as miserable as sin after winning in Monza two weeks ago, was unusually phlegmatic last night just when he had every reason to be downcast.

Perhaps he knows a conclusion to his contract saga is around the corner. Hamilton insisted afterwards that he still had not decided whether to stick or twist, but the way he talked about McLaren over the weekend, allied to the superiority of his car for a fourth race in succession, gave the distinct impression that differences had been settled and he would not be gambling on Mercedes.

"We've just been a bit unlucky," shrugged Hamilton, who said DNFs (failing to finish races) were proving costly. "You can't afford DNFs and we've had far too many this season. "We had opportunities at the start of the year and didn't take them. Now we've had them again and unfortunately other things have intervened. That's life."

Asked if he would be remonstrating with anyone at the team, given the fact that he himself has been largely blameless this year, Hamilton added: "They are working as hard as they can. These things just happen when you are in a fierce, competitive year. It's not their fault over Grosjean or Maldonado's collision or the puncture in Germany. It's just unfortunate.

"We had the pace to win this weekend. Before I retired, I was cruising; just managing the gap back to Seb."

It certainly seemed that way. After a moment of silence on the grid to reflect on the death last week of the 'Prof', Sid Watkins, Formula One's inimitable race doctor for a quarter of a century, Singapore's floodlit spectacular got under way with a minimum of fuss.

Hamilton made a clean start from pole while alongside him in the Williams Pastor Maldonado lost places to Vettel and Button. That was how things stayed for the next 22 laps, only the first round of pit stops breaking the flow of the race. It was all about to change.

McLaren admitted afterwards that they had been monitoring the problem for a few laps, but when Hamilton pulled over it was a huge shock to the watching public.

"We knew before him. It was painful," said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who nevertheless reserved praise for Hamilton's mature response. "He is dealing with it like a real champion," Whitmarsh said. "We will look ahead to the final six races - there are 150 points available. This was not a circuit we particularly fancied, but we have a quick car and we can go and dominate in Suzuka."

With Hamilton out it was left to Button to try to hunt down Vettel. The 2009 world champion gave it a good go, but was never quite able to get within range to use the DRS overtaking aid despite two safety car periods, the first a result of Narain Karthikeyan's HRT stopping on track on lap 32, and the second the result of Michael Schumacher wiping out Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne.

Mercedes's veteran, whose future is unclear with Hamilton weighing up a move, admitted his guilt to the stewards and was handed a 10-place grid penalty for Japan.

The race ended one lap early, the maximum two-hour time limit having expired. As the sell-out crowd sauntered off to Raffles Hotel to down some Singapore Slings, thrilled at what they had just witnessed, Hamilton did his best to rid himself of the bitter taste in his own mouth.

"I never give up," he promised. "I have no doubt with this car we can fight. But we need to win every race from now on."