Vettel just one point short of second title

Sebastian Vettel demonstrated his vast supremacy when he won the Singapore Grand Prix to move within a point of becoming the youngest double world champion in Formula One history.

The 24-year-old German drove from pole position to the chequered flag in flawless style in his Red Bull. He won the floodlit 61-lap night race at the Marina Bay street circuit by a controlled 1.7 seconds.

Briton Jenson Button finished second for McLaren to keep the title race just about alive with five races remaining. Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull finished third.

Vettel now requires just a solitary point to claim his second title in succession and can only be beaten to the title if Button wins all five of the remaining races while the German fails to score a further point.

Two-times world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who needed to finish on the podium to keep his own challenge for the drivers' title alive, came home fourth ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren.

The Englishman produced a typically spectacular drive including five pit-stops, a collision and a charge through the field from 16th.

Paul Di Resta came home sixth for Force India, his best result to date in his rookie season in Formula One, ahead of Germans Nico Rosberg in seventh for Mercedes and Adrian Sutil in the second Force India.

Farrari's Felipe Massa, who was the victim of a collision with Hamilton in the early stages of an incident-filled contest, came home ninth.

Mexican Sergio Perez, whose collision with Michael Schumacher saw the German eliminated from the race, finished 10th.

It was Vettel's ninth win of the season and the 19th of his career.

Vettel won in 1hr 59min 6.757sec, a time that signalled the longest and most arduous race of the year.

He, Button and Webber stood still, drained and dripping with sweat on the podium at the end.

Vettel, from his 11th pole position, pulled clear with apparent ease to take control early on, leaving the rest to scrap for places in a flurry of action into turn one.

And he hardly looked back from there.

The brilliant German appeared to revel in his supremacy and opened up a comfortable lead as Hamilton, on successive laps, produced perfect passes to climb to sixth ahead of Rosberg and Schumacher.

By lap 11, Vettel was seemingly in cruise control as the rest battled furiously - Webber taking third from Alonso, whose rear tyres were worn severely, Rosberg initiating the pit-stops and followed a lap later by Alonso.

Vettel's lead after 18 laps was more than 10 seconds.

He stretched it to 20 seconds by lap 30 when the race was red-flagged for the first time after Schumacher ran into the rear of Perez's Sauber car and made an airborne collision with the barriers.

This brought out the safety car and signalled a spate of pit stops while Schumacher's wrecked Mercedes was lifted clear. The 42-year-old German was unhurt.

SINGAPORE WRAP:

RACE CLASSIFICATION: 1 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1hr 59min 06.757sec, 2 Jenson Button (McLaren) +1.737sec, 3 Mark Webber (Red Bull) +29.279, 4 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) +55.449, 5 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) +1min 07.766sec, 6 Paul di Resta (Force India) +1:51.067, 7 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1 lap, 8 Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1 lap, 9 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1 lap, 10. Sergio Perez (Sauber).

DRIVERS STANDINGS: 1 Sebastian Vettel 309pts, 2 Jenson Button 185, 3 Fernando Alonso 184, 4 Mark Webber 182, 5 Lewis Hamilton 168, 6 Felipe Massa 84, 7 Nico Rosberg 62, 8 Michael Schumacher 52, 9 Vitaly Petrov 34, 10 Nick Heidfeld 34, 11 Adrian Sutil 28, 12 Kamui Kobayashi 27, 13 Paul di Resta 20, 14 Jaime Alguersuari 16, 15 Sebastien Buemi 13, 16 Sergio Perez 9, 17 Rubens Barrichello 4, 18 Bruno Senna 2, 19 Pastor Maldonado 1.

CONSTRUCTORS STANDINGS: 1 Red Bull 491pts, 2 McLaren 353, 3 Ferrari 268, 4 Mercedes GP 114, 5 Lotus-Renault 70, 6 Force India 48, 7 Sauber 36, 8 Toro Rosso 29, 9 Williams 5.