Sebastian Vettel admits the two safety car periods of the Singapore Grand Prix helped nullify any threat to his third win of the 2015 season.
Vettel led away from pole and was already three seconds clear of Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull after one lap. Vettel could not shake the Red Bull completely before the first safety car period, and attempted to control the pace of the race in the second stint by backing Ricciardo into Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
The second safety car, which occurred on lap 37 after a fan ran across the track, meant Ricciardo could not attempt an undercut and allowed Vettel to control the final stage of the race for a deserved victory.
"First of all it was fairly simple, driveability was fairly unknown, so I was trying to put a gap," Vettel said. "I was surprised by the opening laps to put five seconds straight away. Then eased off, but problems pushing a bit hard in the beginning, which allowed Daniel to just be that two, three, four tenths quicker at the end. Obviously I had a bit of margin left, but the safety car answered all the questions about the first stop and the same for the second stop."
Vettel says he was thinking about the ways the final stint could develop just before the second safety car period occurred.
"I knew that it's impossible for Daniel - for anyone - to go 40-odd laps on the prime tyre, they would just fall apart at the end. So I think some 35-36 laps to go I knew we were approaching, more or less, the pit stop window, plus I knew that one of the Mercedes was on prime tyre, which obviously allows them to be on the option on the final stint.
"So I said 'okay a couple laps to go' when the pit stop [window] opened for the final stint, allowing me to finish on the prime, to go for it to open the gap, to put some three or four seconds between me and Daniel. So that we can react in case he dives into the pits and he doesn't get the undercut, so it worked pretty well!"