Nico Rosberg hung on for the narrowest Formula One victory for six years to win the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, celebrating his 200th career start in perfect style as he reclaimed the championship lead from his Mercedes teammate lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg held on to beat a fast-finishing Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull by just 0.488 of a second at the Marina Bay street circuit while Hamilton took third place, narrowly in front of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Rosberg's third successive win, and first in Singapore, took him back to the top of the drivers' championship, eight points ahead of Hamilton with six races left.
Ricciardo, having pitted for fresh tires with 14 laps left, sliced Rosberg's lead from 25 seconds to under a second but ultimately fell just short of overtaking the German. It was the closest F1 finish since the 2010 race at this venue when Fernando Alonso edged Sebastian Vettel by three tenths of a second.
"Daniel tried to pull one up on me with the pitstop at the end, we knew it was going to be tight but we got there so I'm very happy," Rosberg said. "The whole car was on the edge, it always is here in Singapore, so it's very satisfying to finish like that."
His team boss Toto Wolff perhaps summed it up best. "We nearly peed our pants at the end," Wolff said. "It was so close at the end, how it should be in Formula One; four really great cars, different strategies. I must take my hat off to Red Bull with their strategy by pitting him, we couldn't do that."
Vettel finished a creditable fifth after having started at the back of the grid due to a technical malfunction in qualifying. Red Bull's Max Verstappen started poorly from fourth on the grid and finished sixth, overtaking Alonso with seven laps to go. Force India's Sergio Perez held off Daniil Kvyat to finish eighth while Kevin Magnussen was tenth to give Renault only its second points finish of the season.
The safety car came out almost immediately due to a spectacular accident in the middle of the pack just after the start. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg tried to get through a narrowing gap between the two Toro Rossos but clipped a tire on Carlos Sainz Jr.'s car and speared heavily into the pitlane wall.