Boo away, Vettel doesn't care

So aggressive on the track, yet so casual about the boo boys off it. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel became the most successful driver in the SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, after cantering to his third successive win on the Marina Bay street circuit, in front of a record crowd of 87,509 fans.

The triple world champion led from start to finish with his superior car and driving on Sunday night.

Vettel and his team even had the luxury of opting to switch from medium to faster super-soft tyres with 18 laps to go in the 61-lap race.

But his victory parade was marred by jeers from sections in the gathered crowd on the track, reminiscent of similar scenes in Grands Prix in Italy - home race of main championship rivals Ferrari - as well as Silverstone and Montreal this year.

Vettel said: "It's not nice, but a lot of fans are dressed in red and Ferrari have a very strong fan base for a reason - they have a lot of tradition and success in Formula 1.

"Obviously they are quite emotional when they are not winning and they don't like it. It seems like they are on a tour and they are wealthy enough to go to a lot of the races," he added, laughing.

"As long as they are booing, we are doing a very good job. In the lap after the chequered flag there were a lot of people cheering, obviously I didn't give them the most exciting race - on days like these I really don't mind."

The German was dominant for practically the entire race weekend, although Nico Rosberg was closest to him in qualifying and started second on the grid on Sunday night.

The Mercedes driver momentarily overtook Vettel at Turn 1, but the German regained his lead immediately at the following turn.

Vettel said: "The lights went off and I...was a little lazy to get off the line. I thought Nico might still be there, he was side by side and I had to give him room.

"Fortunately he was braking quite deeply into Turn 1 and I could come back on the inside on the next."

The safety car came out in the middle of the race - which Vettel won just under the two-hour time limit - after Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo crashed at Turn 18.

Vettel said: "The safety car didn't help but it didn't hurt us. We had a new set of super soft tyres (near the end) while the rest were on very old prime tyres - we could control the race then."

Vettel's main drivers' championship rival Fernando Alonso finished second after starting seventh on the grid, while future Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium finishers in third place, despite suffering from a bad back.

Rosberg eventually finished fourth, while Lotus' Romain Grosjean, who was third in qualifying, had to retire after 37 laps.

Too slow

Alonso said: "Second place is already a good result - we were too slow this weekend and not at the level we should be.

"We tried something different with our pit-stops and it paid off at the end with a second-place finish.

"For us, it tastes like a victory today."

With the result, Vettel has stretched his lead in the drivers' championship over Alonso. The German has 247 points, compared to the Spaniard's 187, with just six races to go.

Even with his fightback finish, Alonso was pessimistic about catching up with Vettel.

He said: "Obviously we have to be realistic, there are only a few races to go and the gap is still increasing every weekend. We need to be honest with ourselves, we need a lot of luck every weekend.

"But on the other hand, we are very uncomfortable opponents because if we get that luck we will be there (in the title race)."

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