SINGAPORE, Sept 22: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel cruised to a third straight Singapore Grand Prix victory on Sunday and moved 60 points clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso after a dominant drive under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The German led from pole to flag and lapped on average almost two seconds quicker than his rivals to finish 32.6 seconds clear of Alonso and take another big step towards a fourth successive title with six races remaining.

Kimi Raikkonen shrugged off back pain to climb from 13th on the grid to third for Lotus in a challenging race that was held up by one decisive safety car period when Daniel Ricciardo crashed his Toro Rosso into the barriers on lap 26 but there was disaster for Red Bull’s Mark Webber, whose late charge ended in a blown engine and a ride back to the pits on the wing of Alonso’s Ferrari.

Vettel was challenged briefly by fellow-German Nico Rosberg, who was second on the grid, on the run to the first turn but once he held off the Mercedes, he controlled the race.

“The start was quite hairy, Nico had a good start, but fortunately he went a little too deep and I was able to get him back,” Vettel said.

“With the safety car, it was difficult but we came back … we had very, very good pace.”

The peerless 26-year-old has now won four of the last five grand prix and is a racing certainty to become the sport’s youngest four-time world champion, joining Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio as only the third man to win four in a row.

Alonso got a superb start, going around the outside of several drivers to vault from seventh to third after two corners, and later capitalised by pitting under safety car conditions to complete the entire second half of the race on the same set of the harder tires.

“We knew we didn’t have the pace today, we had to invent something,” Alonso said. “I had a good start, and a different strategy ... it tastes like a victory to us.”

Raikkonen, who will join Alonso at Ferrari next season, duplicated the Spaniard’s strategy and was able to hold on for third place from the fast-charging Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who opted to stay out behind the safety car.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was sixth, ahead of the McLaren pair Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Force India’s Adrian Sutil completing the top ten.

Results:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull-Renault 1:59:13.132; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari +00:32.627; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus-Renault 00:43.920; 4. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 00:51.155; 5. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 00:53.159; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 01:03.877; 7. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 01:23.354; 8. Sergio Perez (Mexico) McLaren 01:23.820; 9. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Sauber-Ferrari 01:24.261; 10. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 01:24.668; 11. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams-Renault 01:28.479; 12. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber-Ferrari 01:37.894; 13. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Renault 01:45.161; 14. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:53.512; 15r. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull-Renault 1 lap; 16. Giedo van der Garde (Netherlands) Caterham-Renault 1 lap; 17. Max Chilton (Britain) Marussia-Cosworth 1 lap; 18. Jules Bianchi (France) Marussia-Cosworth 1 lap; 19. Charles Pic (France) Caterham-Renault 1 lap; 20r. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India-Mercedes 7 laps.

Retired: Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus-Renault 24 laps; Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 37 laps.

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, 1:48.574, lap 46.—Agencies