Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix yesterday after world champion Lewis Hamilton retired early for the first time this season and an intruder set heart rates fluttering when he strolled on to the track.

Hamilton was running fourth approaching the halfway point of the 61-lap race when he lost engine power, rapidly dropping back through the field before he was told to return to the garage and call it a night.

Starting from pole, Vettel had no problems, leading all the way to take the chequered flag for the fourth time at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit, despite twice losing the big advantage he had built up when the safety car was deployed.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo finished second for Red Bull, his best result of a frustrating year, while Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line third.

“It must be one of my best races. It was pretty intense,” Vettel said.

“Lots of pressure from behind; Daniel had a very good race looking after his tyres.

“Second stint I was dictating the pace. From then, I was trying to control the gap. We had a really great weekend.”

Nico Rosberg finished fourth for Mercedes to cut Hamilton’s championship lead to 41 points with six races remaining.

Vettel trails Hamilton by 49 and Raikkonen is 145 adrift with a maximum of 150 available.

No other driver has a chance of winning the championship.

“If we have more weekends like this, yes we can catch Mercedes,” Vettel said. “Massive attack. Maybe we can make the impossible possible – we will definitely go for it.”

Vettel’s win was the German’s third this season and the 42nd of his career, enabling the quadruple world champion to overtake the late Ayrton Senna into outright third place for the most lifetime wins, trailing only Michael Schumacher (91) and Alain Prost (51).

A proven master on the slow and twisty Singapore track, Vettel opened up a three-second lead over Ricciardo on the opening lap and was never challenged even when the safety car was introduced.

Its first appearance came on the 13th lap when Felipe Massa exited the pits and was hit from the side by Nico Hulkenberg who speared into a wall, wrecking his Force India car and ending his race. Hulkenberg was immediately given a grid penalty for the next race.

The second came when a spectator walked on the circuit before climbing back though a hole in the fence. The man was later arrested.

Hamilton, who needs one more win to draw level with his childhood hero Senna, endured his worst weekend of the season.

“I was feeling super optimistic and easily keeping up,” he told the BBC. “I was hoping for a quick fix but it never came.”

Singapore GP result

Fastest lap: Daniel Ricciardo, 1:50.041, lap 52.
Next race: Japanese Grand Prix, September 27.

Drivers’ standings
1. Hamilton 252 points; 2. Rosberg 211; 3. Vettel 203; 4. Raikkonen 107; 5. Bottas 101; 6. Massa 97; 7. Ricciardo 73; 8. Kvyat 66; 9. Perez 39; 10. Grosjean 38; 11. Verstappen 30; 12. Hulkenberg 30; 13. Nasr 17; 14. Maldonado 12; 15. Alonso 11; 16. Sainz Jr 11; 17. Ericsson 9; 18. Button 6.

Constructors
1. Mercedes 463; 2. Ferrari 310; 3. Williams-Mercedes 198; 4. RedBull-Renault 139; 5. Force India-Mercedes 69; 6. Lotus-Mercedes 50; 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 41; 8. Sauber-Ferrari 26; 9. McLaren 17.