Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen, who was announced last week to be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season finished fifth – both of the Scuderia’s driver ending the race where they had started.

On the grid the top ten were all on Hypersofts and at the start, Vettel attacked Verstappen, right with him after the first corner and then getting past at the gentle curve of Turn 6, just before the yellow lights came on, because Ocon was in the wall. Raikkonen meanwhile had maintained his fifth place off the grid.

The restart came on lap 5, with no passing moves. At this stage, Ferrari was mainly focusing on tyre and fuel management. Only after lap 10 did the pace pick up, while on the pit wall, thoughts were already turning to pit stops.

Vettel came in for his at the start of lap 15. As he came out, he would have to give it his all to try and pull off the undercut. Vettel took on the Ultrasofts and Hamilton came in for Softs, re-joining still ahead, while Vettel was fighting with Perez. In the pit stop race, the Ferrari had gained a few tenths, but it wasn’t enough.

As for Raikkonen, he went long on his stint, while his team-mate got past the Force India on lap 17. But he’d lost a lot of time and he found himself right behind Verstappen as the Dutchman emerged from the pits.

Raikkonen was leading and running a strong pace. Vettel had to cool his brakes before speeding up again. Raikkonen made his pit stop on lap 23 and, unlike Vettel, he fitted a set of Softs, the hardest compound available here. Surprisingly, a few drops of rain fell. Out in front, it was Ricciardo now, who had yet to change tyres, which he did on lap 28, taking on Ultrasofts.

At two thirds distance, the leaders came up behind the first of the backmarkers. Raikkonen made the most of it to close on Bottas, but this is Marina Bay and overtaking is a rare sight. The battle in these closing stages livened things up a bit in the Singapore night.

Maurizio Arrivabene: “Today’s winner deserved the victory. After Sebastian overtook Verstappen, we went for an aggressive strategy, trying for the undercut on the Ultrasoft tyres. Unfortunately, during the one lap that would prove to be crucial, we found ourselves behind another car and so we were unable to run at a fast-enough pace. Despite today’s result, not all is lost. Now, calmly and with determination, we will tackle the remaining six races, fighting all the way to the end.”

Sebastian Vettel: “It’s never easy to come and win even if, obviously, that was our target. Yesterday the qualifying didn’t go the way we wanted and we couldn’t extract the best out of ourselves. Today, starting from third position, we had to try something different, but it didn’t work out and we finished where we started. We were running second after a good start which allowed me to get past Max, I was happy and confident when I got the call to box, I knew I needed a mega out lap to try and challenge for the lead but it didn’t work. I lost time behind another car and the brakes got a little too hot, it was close but we got the worse of it. I fully support the team’s decision because, as I am sitting in the car, I can’t be aware of everything that goes on, so I rely on them. Our target was not to finish third, but today we just did not have enough speed.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “Not much happened today in the race; the car was behaving well and we had a fair speed, but most of the time we were stuck behind somebody and taking care of the tires. On this track it’s impossible to overtake, unless the guy in front makes a massive mistake. I could see Bottas struggling with his front right tire and locking it sometimes, I could get closer to him but not enough to pass. Through the middle part of the track it was even difficult to follow him because we were losing downforce. In the first stint we stayed out longer hoping for a Safety Car, but it did not happen. The qualifying here is the key and obviously, when you start behind, your race ends up being a bit boring, getting stuck behind other cars. There was no way we could use our speed. Obviously we wanted more, we did what we could, but this is what we have got today.”

Photos: Scuderia Ferrari - 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship