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Singapore GP. Race Review. In one of the most boring races of the season so far, Lewis Hamilton cruised to his second win of the season under the lights at Singapore, while Jenson Button reasserted himself in the championship and Red Bull imploded. Once again.

Hamilton's victory rarely looked in doubt, save for a middle portion of the race when he was harried by the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. But as he removed himself from contention after speeding in the pit lane, meaning he had to take a drive-through penalty, Hamilton was left to take one of the easiest wins of his career to date.

From the start, Hamilton kept his advantage from pole position, while Nico Rosberg jumped ahead of Vettel into second place. Fernando Alonso also passed the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, but the Aussie forced his way back through later on in the lap, delaying Alonso for long enough to allow the hugely impressive Timo Glock through as well.

Alas, Webber was once again the victim of a slightly dubious penalty that crippled his evening. After having passed Alonso round the outside of turn seven, using the run-off area to complete the pass, he was ordered to let the Spaniard back through, which meant he also had to let Glock past as well. The Aussie was back down to sixth and from there on he had a traumatic afternoon, never looking like scoring big points, before a brake failure sent him spinning into the wall at turn one.

That failure was the first of many as the abrasive and braking-heavy track took it's toll, and also led to question marks about the Red Bull mechanics, who were shown on TV clocking bits of brake pad that had fallen off at Webber's last pit stop, but seemingly had made no attempt to warn the driver.

Webber and Vettel weren't the only driver beset by penalties. Rosberg removed himself from contention by making a mess of exiting the pit lane after his first stop, running over the white line and picking up a drive-through penalty for his efforts. This problem was exacerbated by a safety car period, triggered when Adrian Sutil tried to recover from a spin but only succeeded in driving into the helpless Nick Heidfeld, meaning that Rosberg dropped well down the order when he finally served his punishment.

The German then spent the rest of the race hobbling around in the midfield, and picked up his second straight pointless finish, though he at least managed the rare honour of passing a car on track, when he skipped past the useless Jamie Alguersuari.

Through all the errors and penalties, then, Timo Glock came through to take second for Toyota behind Hamilton, equalling his best-ever finish in the process, while Fernando Alonso took a morale-boosting third place for the sponsorless Renault team. Vettel recovered from his drive-through to finish fourth, but his title hopes are now all-but over.

The championship fight between the Brawns was again conducted in the lower points places, with Rubens Barrichello running ahead of his team mate Jenson Button for much of the race after an electric start. Sadly for the Brazilian though, Button opted for a super-long midle stint and a late pit stop, meaning he had the time to pull out a big enough gap to resume ahead of Barrichello after his final stop.

Although the Brit only gained a single point on his rival, he also got a morale-boosting result of beating his team mate for the first time in a while. Button is now 15 points ahead of Barrichello with just 30 points left to fight over in Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. It is not out of the question that the title could be decided next week at Suzuka.

So Button was 5th, ahead of Barrichello, while Heikki Kovalainen picked up two points in 7th, but did little to help his cause to be kept on by the McLaren team next year. Robert Kubica secured the final point in his BMW Sauber.

Outside the points, the Ferrari drivers had a miserable afternoon, Kimi Raikkonen unable to boost himself into the points after a late splash-and-dash pit stop. He finished 10th, three places ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, who still looks uncomfortable in his "dream drive". Tonio Liuzzi also struggled at the unfamiliar track in his Force India and came home 14th and last.

The retirements included the Toro Rosso pair of Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi, who hilariously retired together, both pulling into their garages almost in unison. Alguersuari had further brake issues, while Buemi had a gearbox glitch. They joined Webber, Sutil, Heidfeld and Romain Grosjean, who completed just four laps before retiring with brake issues, on the sidelines.

So, once again, the title protagonists were overshadowed by others this weekend, with Hamilton dominant and Glock and Alonso impressing. This wasn't quite the "champions drive" that the BBC tried to sell it as from Button, but it was once again an example of him doing just enough on an afternoon when his main rivals toiled uselessly.

The slow hobble towards the 2009 driver's title continues.

Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Button 84pts, 2 Barrichello 69pts, 3 Vettel 59pts, 4 Webber 51.5pts, 5 Raikkonen 40pts, 6 Hamilton 37pts, 7 Rosberg 30.5pts, 8 Alonso 26pts, 9 Glock 24pts, 10 Trulli 22.5pts, 11 Kovalainen, Felipe Massa 22pts, 13 Heidfeld 12pts, 14 Kubica 9pts, 15 Fisichella 8pts, 16 Sutil 5pts, 17 Buemi 3pts, 18 Sebastien Bourdais 2pts.

Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Brawn-Mercedes 153pts, 2 Red Bull-Renault 110.5pts, 3 Ferrari 62pts, 4 McLaren-Mercedes 59pts, 5 Toyota 46.5pts, 6 Williams-Toyota 30.5pts, 7 Renault 26pts, 8 BMW Sauber 21pts, 9 Force India-Mercedes 13pts, 10 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5pts.