By Andy Hum

LEWIS HAMILTON MAY have taken the chequered flag at the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, but all eyes remain on championship points leader, Jenson Button. The Briton finished fifth, one place ahead of his main world champion title rival, Rubens Barrichello.

Button collected four points, bringing his total now to 84, while Barrichello added three points to make his total 69.

Red Bull Racing driver, Sebastian Vettel qualified second and finished fourth, taking home an important five points to extend his lead over team mate Mark Webber. Both drivers now have 59 and 51.5 points respectively.

For Williams-Toyota driver, Nico Rosberg, it was a most disappointing race. The 24-year-old driver had qualified an impressive third, which boosted the team’s morale after having scored only a signal point since the Spa-Francorchamps race in Belgium in August. At the race start, Rosberg, who had the advantage of launching from the cleaner side of the track, made an impressive start and managed to edge ahead of Vettel.

On lap 18, however, while entering the pits, Rosberg lost some traction and slid, crossing the white line and resulting in him being awarded with a drive-through penalty. The German driver was unable to recover significantly, partly due to the safety car’s appearance, and eventually finished seventh.

Toyota’s Timo Glock and Renault’s Fernando Alonso finished second and third, respectively, which was an especially important result for Renault.

Following the departure of Flavio Briatore, Dutch financial institution ING stopped its sponsorship with Renault (worth 30 million pounds), saying that they were “deeply disappointed” at the sequence of events which resulted in Renault’s suspended two-year ban.

But there were more also more stopping problems at the circuit last night. Mark Webber, Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean had to end their race prematurely due to brake problems.

Webber commented, “We had a suspected brake problem, so when I came in for my pit-stop, the guys made a visual check. It seemed reasonable for me to continue, but then we had the failure and I retired.” He also made clear his displeasure at the stewards’ decision that ordered him to let Alonso and Glock pass. A short battle for positions with the Spanish driver at turn three just after the race start got them both running slightly wide on the exit.

“The first lap was pretty feisty, as you’d expect on a street circuit and I had a bit of a fight with Fernando in Turn 7 and we both ran wide. About nine laps later I had to let Fernando back through, but unfortunately Glock was in the middle by then, so I had to let them both through. My race was heavily compromised from there. I thought the incident was fifty/fifty – but the stewards decided I had to let Fernando and Glock through, so I lost the hard work I’d done during my first stint. It was a hard penalty I think, Kimi did something similar in Spa and got away with it.”

The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka and will be on this weekend, October 4. Following that, two races remain – the Brazilian Grand Prix on October 18, and the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on November 1.

With Sebastian Vettel having 59 points currently (25 less than leader Jenson Button), the chances of the 22-year-old driver becoming world champion is extremely small – he would need at least two victories and a third place minimum, with the two Brawn drivers being able to do absolutely nothing about it.

On the other hand, Barrichello, who is now 15 points behind, needs just one victory and a third place, and for team mate Jenson to score no points at all to win the 2009 title.