If Monza had been a prime example of how Vettel’s main rivals had kept finding different ways to trip themselves over, which has been one of the themes this season, then Singapore showcased two other inter-related themes that are coming to the fore as the year wears on. With the remaining rounds all fly-aways, and teams resigning themselves to their 2011 fate and slowing down development as they look to 2012, Singapore was probably a fairly good barometer of where F1 this year has evolved to.

Whilst the combination of Pirelli tyres, KERS and DRS have undoubtedly raised the level of excitement and action in F1 this year, their effectiveness was also premised on the field being closely matched. Once you have competitors in close proximity, the Pirellis mix up the strategies, and KERS and DRS allow moves on-track to be made. China was probably the best dry race of the year, on a day when there was little between the race pace of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

In terms of lap times, the whole field remains relatively tightly bunched, but on the Marina Bay grid 8 of the 12 rows - the entire top 10 and the last 3 rows - were perfect Noah’s Ark formations, plus the Williams were 12th and 13th. That means only three teams did not have their cars starting directly next to each other. The hierarchy down the field is more pronounced this year, which in turn means that there is a greater likelihood of field spread, and the effect of the Pirellis, KERS and DRS is lessened.

This is also reflected in the state of both championships. There is a titanic duel for 2nd in the drivers points between Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, with Lewis Hamilton not out of it yet. But then the only other battle of note is for 9th, with Vitaly Petrov, the non-racing Nick Heidfeld and Kamui Kobayashi trying to stave off the fast-finishing Force India drivers. Likewise, the only battle in the constructors points is for 5th and 6th between Renault, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

Compared to last year, this season has reached a stasis which could make the last five rounds feel rather drawn-out. This leads to the other theme Singapore demonstrated. Perhaps the downside of DRS, when the hierarchy is a bit too well set as it is this year, is that when cars find themselves out of position on a track where it is difficult to pass, DRS makes it too easy for them to resume their usual place, such that DRS actually robs us of action. I am obviously thinking of Hamilton’s charge back through the field.

Needless to say, none of this bothers Vettel in the slightest, as he keeps doing what he’s been doing for much of the year - plant it on pole by a mindboggling margin, run away in the first few laps to batter his rivals into submission, and then make it look insanely easy for the rest of the race. That, however, hides the incredible discipline he has shown on race days, and the intellectual rigour he applies on Saturdays to have his RB7 set up so perfectly that he can fully unleash his talent and unlock his car’s speed.

Over one lap, clearly Sebastian is a special driver, and the RB7 is a remarkable car, but to watch the pole lap from onboard is like seeing art in motion. Compare that to Webber’s chronic understeer in the same car, or how the McLaren and Ferrari drivers had to muscle their machines around the Singapore streets. It’s as if Vettel and Red Bull keep scoring 9s and 10s in every department whereas everyone else averages 7s at best; no wonder the cumulative gap blows out.

Dirty track or not, it was another blown start for Webber, wasting his good front-row Q3 effort on a circuit where he is traditionally weak. His two passing moves on Alonso were spectacular, opportunistic and clinical, but if his strategy was going to match Fernando’s, why did Red Bull keep allowing Mark to be undercut by the Ferrari? Still, 3rd was a decent result, and hopefully the team will now start directing efforts to helping him clinch 2nd in the drivers’ championship. We can but hope.

It’s interesting how, as I also start to think about this year’s F1 Rejects driver rankings, Vettel is obviously number 1, Button is a clear number 2, but I can’t think of anyone who deserves to be number 3 other than by default. Having beaten Webber off the line, Jenson ran 2nd all race and even had the chutzpah to try to chase down Vettel in the closing laps. But for his DNFs in Britain and Germany, and other so-so rounds in Australia and Valencia, he would be in an even stronger position in the points.

Button’s ascendancy at McLaren has also been due to his intelligence and discipline as much as his speed - the same factors behind Vettel’s success. For sure, Hamilton has not had the best of luck this year, like his Q2 puncture and being trapped behind Webber on the run to the first corner. But when he keeps doing dopey things like his Q3 out-lap antics and his utterly unnecessary collision with Felipe Massa, then he completely deserves to be where he is in the points right now.

The puncture Felipe sustained was far more costly than the drive-through Hamilton received for it, and the Brazilian was also less effective at coming back through the field, but that also has to be seen in the context that Massa can - all things being normal - expect to qualify and finish 6th at every race from now on. Anything better is a bonus, anything worse means something’s gone wrong. The promise he had started to show just before the mid-season break seems to have evaporated again.

The Ferrari is just not quite fast enough and, likewise, it seems clear that Alonso is driving for points which is disappointing. He made a semi-spirited attempt to hold Webber off the first time, but the way in which the Aussie caught him napping going into the chicane on the restart after the safety car was quite poor. I can’t think of many occasions this year where Fernando has emerged victorious from a duel, but I’m starting to lose count of the times where he has tasted defeat, and that’s got to be a worry.

On pace, Mercedes are pretty much on their own as the 4th best in the field, but then their dreadful tyre wear means they can’t challenge the top three teams and are constantly under threat from the midfield teams behind. Nico Rosberg, having been fortunate to survive the first corner without damage or a penalty, simply lost out to Paul di Resta for 6th place on the basis of having already made one extra stop by the time the safety car came out.

The safety car’s appearance was of course due to Michael Schumacher’s clumsy shunt with Sergio Perez, which had been precipitated half a lap earlier by Rosberg running off line and losing momentum. I have no doubt that Perez did move slightly right to block and was off the throttle rather early, but Michael’s reactions were way too slow. Some might also say that it was come-uppance for some of Schumi’s own roughhouse defensive tactics in the past.

Di Resta was of course the feelgood story of the night, taking advantage of the loophole that comes with not running in Q3 - something which I’m amazed remains open for the teams to do. In some ways, I’m surprised that Schumacher and Di Resta’s team-mate Adrian Sutil didn’t copy the Scot’s tactic of starting on the primes. It was a great strategy because it got him track position, and it got rid of the primes when full tanks compromise lap times anyway.

It meant that when the safety car came out - always a possibility mid-race on a street circuit - Force India had the option of putting Paul onto another set of primes to run the rest of the race, having gained the track position which he could defend because the VJM04’s speed was very good anyway. The fact that Sutil finished 8th behind Rosberg can be attributed squarely to the fact that he started on options instead, and what that meant for him in terms of tyre life and track position when the safety car emerged.

Force India are coming on so strongly as the season concludes that what looked like to be a close battle for 6th between them, Sauber and Toro Rosso may turn out to be something of a non-event. Instead, the question may be whether they can catch Renault for 5th, which would be amazing given that after Canada Renault were on 60 points and Force India only on 10. In the seven races since, Force India have scored 38 points to Renault’s 10 and the current 22-point gap between them looks well surmountable.

Sauber are bringing an upgrade package to Suzuka, and it will need to work wonders if they are to have any hope of clawing back the lost ground to Force India, because they have only scored 3 points in the last five rounds (whereas Force India has scored 36!). Perez never had the pace to challenge Sutil or Di Resta, and got caught up with the Mercedes because he was out of sequence on tyres, and later in the race he was defenceless against the recovering Hamilton and Massa.

For some reason, Kobayashi simply does not gel with the Singapore streets, and he further blotted his copybook with his Q2 crash. That had a major impact on his race, because he simply could not make enough progress from 17th on the grid. Then, having only used primes in the first half of the race, he was forced to switch to options behind the safety car whilst others were moving onto the primes, necessitating another stop later on, topped off by a drive-through for ignoring blue flags.

So all in all it was a weekend to forget for the Japanese driver, who having started off the season so well, and having scored 25 points by Canada, has only added two points since and is finding himself behind Perez more often than he would like. With the Mexican having now conducted a Ferrari test as well and clearly on Maranello’s radar, Kamui will need another banzai performance soon to ensure that his star does not wane. And where better for him to impress than Suzuka, where he was stunning in 2010?

Toro Rosso also suffered in Singapore by failing to score, the STR6 clearly much better suited to low downforce circuits than the twisty Marina Bay layout. It also didn’t help that there was no early-lap melee which allowed Sebastien Buemi or Jaime Alguersuari to rapidly move up the field from their usual lower-midfield grid positions. Alguersuari also copped a drive-through for contact with Jarno Trulli before crashing late in the race to compound their joyless outing.

Williams also came up short again in Sam Michael’s last race with the team. Although Rubens Barrichello qualified just ahead of Pastor Maldonado, it was the Venezuelan who ran ahead for most of the race. Eventually Pastor made an extra stop, but such was the wear that Rubens encountered by hanging on grimly on a set of primes, Maldonado caught back up and passed the Brazilian. Pastor is starting to look more dynamic as the season progresses. No wonder the Kimi Raikkonen rumours are gathering pace.

But coming up short doesn’t even begin to describe Renault’s miserable weekend, as they scrambled for grip and downforce. For Bruno Senna to hit the wall shortly after his first stop was bad enough, but at least he mounted something of a recovery and overtook his team-mate and Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus in order to get back into the midfield. But for Vitaly Petrov it was an uncharacteristically disastrous weekend, which started with his Q1 elimination.

KERS problems then hampered him in the race, and having been undercut by Kovalainen at the second round of stops, when they pitted on the same lap later in the race the Russian’s destiny was sealed; Lotus and Kovalainen could celebrate defeating one of the established teams on merit. The fact that it was Renault, with whom Lotus has engaged in such bitter disputes, made it all the sweeter and secured the "Reject of the Race" award for Renault for their abysmal weekend.

It could have been even better for the green team, with Trulli having made a terrific start and holding his own behind Kobayashi and Buemi but ahead of Alguersuari and Petrov. Kovalainen leapfrogged ahead of him at the first stops, which could have made it a double-celebration for Lotus before Jarno tangled with Alguersuari which dropped him back down the field. It proved to be academic anyway as the Italian eventually retired from a gearbox failure.

There was also an early shower for Timo Glock after the German crashed his Virgin early on, which was a disappointment given his form in recent years on the Singapore streets. Jerome D’Ambrosio then performed manfully to uphold the team’s honour, his two-stop strategy almost coming up trumps when Kovalainen and Petrov had to pit again, such that the Belgian was running ahead of the Lotus and the Renault, and only succumbed to them both in the final ten laps.

At least Jerome remained only 2 laps down by the chequered flag, which was much better than the HRTs, both of which struggled for pace and finished 4 laps adrift. Daniel Ricciardo fell victim to a concertina effect on the opening lap, losing his front wing, but he was only brought back into play against team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi because of the safety car. When the Italian went off himself after his final stop, it put Ricciardo ahead, but in truth the Australian had been quite a bit faster throughout practice and qualifying.