Two full hours on the narrow streets of a demanding Singapore course means the victor is very much deserving, and Sebastian Vettel again looked nearly perfect while earning his ninth win of the season on Sunday.
Vettel cruised to the pole position in qualifying and quickly jumped to a commanding lead when the lights went out Sunday. He went unchallenged until the final few laps, but in the end Jenson Button was not able to catch the leader before time ran out.
What Button did do was delay the championship celebration. He's now the only other driver not mathematically eliminated, but it's merely a formality at this point. Vettel did all he could in Singapore and will likely get to enjoy the spoils of his season in Japan next week.
The Marina Bay circuit witnessed Vettel's 11th win from pole in the last two seasons, which is nine clear of any other driver. Even with a safety-car period, only five others finished on the lead lap, the second straight race in which Vettel lapped all but five others.
Through 76 career races, Vettel's win rate is on par with some of the greatest to ever get behind the wheel of an F1 machine. His 19 victories means he's filling the top step of the podium 25 percent of the time, which is nearly identical to the career win rates of Ayrton Senna (25.5) and Alain Prost (25.6).
That rate is also higher than legends such as Stirling Moss, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell.
Only 12 drivers have won more than Vettel over their entire careers, and with any luck, he could realistically move into the top five on the all-time wins list by late next season. At this point, there's little argument as to why he wouldn't at least be close in one year's time.
Aside from Vettel's dominance in Singapore, the largest headline was Lewis Hamilton's hectic weekend.
The 2008 world champion started fourth beside teammate Button and found himself in eighth by the conclusion of Lap 1. He had a strong launch off the grid but found himself bottled up by Mark Webber's poor start and, as a result, saw several cars overtake him heading into the first turn.
Contact with Felipe Massa in the early stages of the race led to a drive-through penalty, ultimately meaning Hamilton ended up pitting a race-high five times.
Still, Hamilton battled back and drove well to salvage a fifth-place finish, but it could have been so much better. Over the past nine races, Hamilton has more retirements (two) than podiums (one), and has lost 100 points to leader Vettel.
It's also looking bleak for Renault. The season started off promisingly with podium finishes in Australia and Malaysia, but since those first two events, the team has failed to match the points earned in either of those races again.
Since the European Grand Prix seven races ago, Renault has collected just 10 total points, seven fewer than Toro Rosso and only one more than Sauber. In that same span, Force India has collected 38.
Singapore was perhaps a season low; the squad failed to score any points for the second time in four races, with team principal Eric Boullier describing the weekend to reporters as "embarrassing."
Both Bruno Senna (15th) and Vitaly Petrov (17th) finished well down the order, split by Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus. Clearly, there is very little momentum in the Renault camp these days.
