MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 SPORTS Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix SINGAPORE: Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the Singapore Grand Prix yesterday and runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton retired mid-race, injecting new life into the fight for the Formula One title. Vettel led from start to finish in a race that was temporarily interrupted by a fan wandering on the track. Vettel’s third win of the season came by 1.4 seconds over Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third, as all three finished in the positions they started at the Marina Bay street circuit. “I was able to look after my tires and control the pace,” Vettel said. “Overall a perfect weekend, I am very, very happy.” Hamilton suffered a pow- er delivery failure that the team took a long time to diagnose and could not fix, forcing him out on lap 33. His championship lead over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who finished fourth, was cut from 53 to 41 points - 252 vs. 211 - with Vettel a further eight points back on 203. There are six races left. SINGAPORE: Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat of Russia steers his car during the third Williams driver Valterri Bottas was fifth on practice session at the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix on the Marina Bay City Sunday, Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat sixth and Force Circuit. — AP photos India’s Sergio Perez seventh. Toro Rosso teenager Max Verstappen finished eighth, refusing team orders in the closing laps to move over for team- mate Carlos Sainz Jr who was ninth. Sauber’s Dhoni returns Felipe Nasr passed Romain Grosjean on the penultimate lap for the last points position. There were two safety-car periods in the race. to captain India The first came following a collision between Williams’ Felipe Massa, who was coming out of NEW DELHI: India named yesterday the pits, and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. Race stewards blamed Hulkenberg, and he will get a uncapped all-rounder Gurkeerat Singh in three-place grid penalty at the next race. The the one-day squad for the first three second came in bizarre circumstances when a matches against South Africa which will fan was seen wandering on the track near the SINGAPORE: Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany kisses the trophy after winning the also see veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni Anderson Bridge section. Vettel shouted over Singapore Formula One Grand Prix on the Marina Bay City Circuit. return to captain the side. the team radio “there is a man on the track!” and small chance. Maybe we can make the impossi- long-stint pace. “Both safety cars came out at Singh, 25, who has impressed with both the safety car was immediately deployed. The ble possible. We will definitely go for it.” The crucial times, but nonetheless his pace was the bat and the ball in the Indian junior casually-dressed man soon climbed over a track- German made a storming start to the race, lead- good,” Ricciardo said, while quipping that he was side, replaced Ravindra Jadeja while leg side barrier and off the track and the race ing by three seconds after a brilliant opening lap so frustrated by the intruding fan ruining his tac- spinner Amit Mishra came in for seamer resumed. and extending that to 5.3 seconds after only five tical plan that “I was tempted to swerve and clip Dhawal Kulkarni. Dhoni, who retired from laps. Ricciardo had whittled that back to 3.6 sec- him.” Hamilton was racing in fourth place, and Test cricket during a disappointing tour of Hamilton retires onds after 12 laps and the Australian looked like- with the potential advantage of having a softer Australia last year, returns to lead the ODI Mercedes struggled all weekend for pace as it ly to close onto the back of his former Red Bull tire than his rivals in the final stint, when sud- and T20I squads, after Virat Kohli led India was not able to get enough grip from the tires, teammate, but then the first safety car emerged. denly the car began to lose power. to a Test-series victory in Sri Lanka this and then on race day Hamilton suffered his first After that caution period, Vettel adopted a “I was feeling super optimistic,” Hamilton said. month. retirement of the season. While this race was different strategy, driving conservatively as the “I was on the prime tires and the three cars in The selectors said they did not consider likely to be only a temporary aberration to field closed up behind him. He then suddenly front were on the options but I was easily keep- changing the limited-over captaincy, Hamilton’s otherwise dominant season, Vettel burst away to put two seconds’ gap on Ricciardo ing up with them and thinking ‘we have a race quashing speculation of any retirement by Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not giving up hope of challenging for the in the space of one lap. Again, Ricciardo began on our hands’. They were telling me to change all the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman from the grueling tour with a practice match in New championship. “If we have more weekends like to erode the margin, only for another safety car these things and then I was overtaken by two shorter formats of the game. The 34-year- Delhi on September 29, with the first T20 to this, yes,” Vettel said. “All we have to do is look period to effectively destroy the Australian’s Manors so I knew l was last. When they started after ourselves, maximum attack. We still have a hopes of catching up by exploiting his superior to pull away, I knew it was over.” — AP old, who won the World Twenty20 on his be played in Dharamsala on October 2. captaincy debut in 2007, has scored 8,620 ODI squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (cap- runs from 265 ODIs at an average of 52.24. tain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Stuart Binny, Opener Shikhar Dhawan, recovering Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Murray sends Britain from a hand fracture, is included in both Kumar, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh squads. For the three T20 internationals, Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Mohit Sharma, Rohit selectors picked uncapped Karnataka Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh, seamer Sreenath Aravind, who has played Amit Mishra. into Davis Cup final 41 first-class matches. Fast bowler T20 squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (cap- Mohammed Shami, undergoing rehabilita- tain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Stuart Binny, tion for a knee injury he suffered during Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar LONDON: Britain reached the Davis Cup final for the tour of Australia, was not considered Kumar, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh the first time in 37 years yesterday as Andy for either squad. The teams for the remain- Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Mohit Sharma, Rohit Murray outclassed Australia’s Bernard Tomic in ing two one-dayers and the four-Test series Sharma, Sreenath Aravind, Harbhajan straight sets to give them an unbeatable 3-1 will be named later. South Africa begin the Singh, Amit Mishra. —AFP lead. World number three Murray had teamed up with brother Jamie to win a thrilling five-set doubles rubber against Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth on Saturday to leave the hosts needing to win just one of yesterday’s reverse singles. The 28-year-old, who became the first Briton to win the Wimbledon men’s singles in 77 years in 2013, duly delivered his third point of the match, beating an increasingly dispirited Tomic 7-5 6-3 6-2 to wild cheers from a partisan Glasgow crowd. In doing so Murray improved his record in Davis Cup singles to 25-2 — an incredi- ble contribution and the main reason Britain have risen from the depths of the competition in 2010 to within one victory of their first title since 1936. “Obviously, winning for your country and your team mates means a lot. The crowd were unbelievable from the first ball to the last,” Murray told the BBC. “I didn’t feel great the whole weekend to be honest, I’ve been strug- gling with my back, but I just tried to disguise it. GLASGOW: Andy Murray of Great Britain celebrates his victory during his reverse singles We’ve got everyone here, mother, father, wife, match against Bernard Tomic of Australia in the Davis Cup tennis semi-final between Great grandmother, mother-in-law, aunties and uncles. Britain and Australia. — AFP Kuwait shooting “Obviously, I’m delighted to get through, we level, breaking back from 2-5 down to level the set managed to dominate, setting up a final against knew this would be difficult, Australia have so at 5-5. However, the Australian, who is ranked 23 either Belgium or Argentina. That semi-final was delegation returns home much depth and experience but we fought in the world, slipped 0-40 down at 5-6 and, locked at 2-2 in Brussels with the final singles rub- extremely hard all weekend.” By Abdellatif Sharaa the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al- despite saving two set points, was bamboozled by ber still to be played. Should Belgium win they Murray’s only moment of alarm yesterday Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime a Murray drop shot. After that the outcome of the would stage the final but an Argentina victory came in the first set when Tomic briefly raised his KUWAIT: The Kuwait shooting delega- Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al- match became a formality as a clearly tired Murray would give Britain home advantage. — Reuters tion that participated in the World Clay Sabah and for the Kuwait people.