MANILA, Philippines -- Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel has to wait at least one more race to get his back-to-back Driver’s Championship. Despite his near-perfect grand prix weekend in Singapore where he dominated the race from lights to finish, the German driver still needs to score a single point for him to retain the crown.

Vettel led from his 13th pole of the season from 14 races to the chequered flag, but had to withstand a late attempt by McLaren driver Jenson Button to catch him. With Button’s second place finish in Singapore, he is now the only man in F1 who has a chance of foiling Vettel’s championship drive — as long as the 2009 World Champion wins all five races and Vettel fails to score a single point.

During the race, Vettel was comfortably ahead in a surprisingly incident-free Singapore Grand Prix. On lap 30 however, Michael Schumacher misjudged Sergio Perez’s braking point that saw the seven-time World Champion thump his Mercedes into the Mexican’s Sauber — and in the process getting airborne before crashing into the barriers. Fortunately, Schumacher escaped the incident unhurt.

The Safety Car came out immediately after the crash diminishing the lead Vettel had worked so hard for. But once the racing resumed, the German was quick to build up another insurmountable lead, again.

Mark Webber had a poor start even though he started second from the grid. However, the Australian was able to get the upper hand after a brilliant pass on Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

He later lost the place back to Alonso but regained third position after the Spaniard got caught in the tail of Jaime Alguersuari.

Alguersuari however failed to finish the race as his car spun and hit the barriers.

“What a race, what a track, what a fabulous night!” Vettel exclaimed after the race. “We’re unbelievably happy with our win and third place. Even though we’re not champions yet, we will still celebrate.” (Edited by Anjo Perez)