SINGAPORE – Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Formula One race by clinching the first position at the Singapore Grand Prix 2016.

The result lifts Rosberg on to 273 points with six rounds remaining, while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo scored second position, Reuters reported.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton came up third in the finals.

Meanwhile, last year’s winner Sebastian Vettel managed a fifth finishing after initial issues with his suspension affected his timing.

In other news, a monitor lizard managed to enter the track last night, startling Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

“There’s a giant lizard on the track!”, Vertappen had exclaimed, while his 18-year-old engineer radioed back cheekily: “You came face to face with Godzilla.”

F1 race heats up in Singapore Grand Prix

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Straits Times, The Business Times, Reuters

Here are some entertainment highlights you might have missed:

Queen of pop Kylie Minogue drew a 45,000 strong crowd on the opening night of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sept 16.

The Australian singer looked not a day over 30 as she sashayed on stage with a simple, flirty red dress. Ever the entertainer, Kylie’s incredible stage presence drew the crowd wild as they sang along to her hits like In Your Eyes and Spinning Around.

Though Kylie’s show only started at 11.15pm, the crowd only grew to a steady throng as the night wore on.

Later, they were spotted partying it up at New Asia on the top of Swissotel.

Disco kings, KC and the Sunshine Band also rocked the stage at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre, where ardent fans spilled over the ampitheatre and onto the bayfront. The band belted out crowd favourites like Shake Your Booty and Give It Up.

There was certainly no slowing down on the second night as legendary rock band Queen and Adam Lambert took to the stage at the Padang to perform their evergreen classics.

UK indie band Bastille also graced the Padang stage that same night while world-renowned a capella group Pentatonix killed it at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre.

Remodelled to offer a more rewarding concert experience this year, the stage will also be a fitting platform for Imagine Dragons, the multi-platinum alternative rock band to present their smash hits like ‘Shots’ and On Top Of The World’ on the last night of the race (Sept 18).

The group performed at 10.30pm tonight at the Padang.

The international acts revved up the party mood for the 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix which saw the world’s best drivers racing one another at the Marina Bay Street Circuit this weekend.

debwong@sph.com.sg

Nico Rosberg won the Singapore Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to seize the drivers’ world championship lead from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third.

The German held off Red Bull’s late-charging Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.4sec to win his third straight race and establish an eight-point lead over title-holder Hamilton in the standings.

It proved a tense finish as traffic prevented Rosberg pitting for new tyres near the end and Ricciardo, after his stop, closed the gap from more than 20 seconds to mere fractions over the final 14 laps.

“It’s been an awesome weekend,” said Rosberg, as he celebrated victory in what was his 200th race.

“Today, great start, I had a good car in the race. Of course, Daniel tried to pull one up on me with the pitstop at the end there, but it worked out.” Ricciardo was still happy despite not quite being able to secure a first victory of the season.

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Photo Gallery

F1 drivers arrive for Singapore Grand Prix 2016

Source:

The Straits Times

Reuters

IWC Schaffhausen

Singapore GP

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“We’ve come very close this year on numerous occasions, but I’m not going to be disappointed,” said the Australian.

“I’m not going to stand here disappointed, we gave it a good shot and got within half-a-second.”

A disappointed Hamilton said: “A really tough weekend for me but huge congratulations to Nico. His win was fully deserved.”

There was drama at the start as Nico Hulkenberg hit Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso and careered across the track before smashing into the pit lane wall and bringing out the safety car.

When the race restarted on lap three, Rosberg darted away into the lead only for there to be a heart-stopping moment.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The New Paper, The Straits Times

The start was bad luck for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was relegated from fourth on the grid to eighth as he took evasive action as Hulkenberg span past his front wing.

Hamilton had endured a frustrating weekend in practice and qualifying and was becoming increasingly irate at not being able to get past Ricciardo.

“Come on guys, I needed a strategy that would get me past,” complained Hamilton on team radio, unimpressed that his first stop saw him take on the slowest compound soft tyres.

Hamilton, struggling with overheating brakes, had dropped to 13 seconds behind Rosberg and was coming under attack for third place by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

“We need to start coming out with some plan because this is all the pace I’ve got with the brakes,” demanded the championship leader on the radio.

But there was nothing he could do as Raikkonen took advantage when Hamilton locked up under braking on lap 33.

A lap later, a flurry of pit stops saw the top four all emerge on soft tyres with Hamilton now six seconds adrift of the top three.

He regained the position on the third and final stops. Ricciardo switched to supersofts whereas Mercedes elected to keep Rosberg out as he got held up by back markers.

Meanwhile Raikkonen’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel had started last after a suspension failure in qualifying but gave a driving masterclass to finish fifth, ahead even of Verstappen who had begun 18 grid places ahead of the German.