HAMILTON

SINGAPORE — McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, while Brawn GP driver Jenson Button extended his Formula One championship lead by one point.

Hamilton started from the pole Sunday and protected his lead to finish 9.6 seconds ahead of Timo Glock, who equalled Toyota's best-ever race result by finishing second. Fernando Alonso provided some good news for scandal-hit Renault by finishing third for the team’s first podium finish of the season.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pursued Hamilton for much of the race, and closed the gap to just half a second after 37 of 61 laps. But his hopes of victory were dashed by a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and he finished fourth.

Button worked his way up the field from 12th place to finish fifth, one place ahead of teammate and championship rival Rubens Barrichello. Button is 15 points ahead of Barrichello with three races to go.

“I’m really happy to get fifth, four points, pull one on Rubens and only lose one to Vettel, so really this has been a good race,” Button said.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber exited on lap 45 after a brake failure that sent him spinning off the track, effectively ending the Australian's slim championship hopes. Webber had been running in fourth in the early part of the race.

Brawn now holds a 42.5-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship, meaning it needs just 12 points over the final three races to take the crown in its inaugural season.

Vettel is 25 points behind Button, and has little chance of preventing one of the Brawn drivers from taking the championship. However, he was not conceding defeat quite yet.

“There’s always a chance,” Vettel said. “We try to push as hard as we can and try to win races. If not, at least finish second, if not, at least finish third. We want to do the best we can and see what happens.”

Barrichello is running out of chances to overtake Button, but was equally defiant.

“I’m not going to throw my towel in,” Barrichello said. “I will fight to the end.”

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was seventh and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica was eighth.