The Mercedes team struggled at Singapore; Lewis Hamilton recorded his first retirement of the season, while Nico Rosberg managed only fourth place, closing the gap in the championship to 41 points.

Coming to Singapore, Nico Rosberg was forced to change his power unit after his engine failure at the previous race in Italy.

[5] Alexander Rossi made his Formula One debut after signing a five-race deal to replace Roberto Merhi at Manor Marussia.

[7] Sauber brought a "heavily-updated car" to the Grand Prix, featuring a shorter nose and revised front and rear wings as well as a new engine cover and brake ducts.

While Ricciardo felt he could go even faster, his teammate Daniil Kvyat was able to put in only eight laps due to a fuel system problem, and he finished the session eighteenth, just ahead of the two Manor Marussia drivers.

Manor's Alexander Rossi placed last, albeit close to teammate Will Stevens, before crashing out at turn 18, ending the last timed runs of all other drivers left on track.

However, his teammate Jenson Button, who was 14th with a detuned power unit, still expressed disappointment at the team's pace, saying he had hoped the car to be better.

[25] After the performances by both Red Bull and Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton expected a "genuine challenge" from both teams over the rest of the weekend.

[26] In the third practice session on Saturday evening, the two Ferraris were in front, with Vettel fastest at 1:45.682, while Räikkönen was almost half a second off his teammate's pace.

Lewis Hamilton had several problems during the session; an early run was interrupted by him leaving the track and he was later called to drive through the pit lane to cool down his overheating car.

Valtteri Bottas was the fastest Williams driver in eleventh, just in front of Nico Hülkenberg, who drove a revised version of his Force India.

[20] During the first part of qualifying (Q1), only the Ferrari were confident enough to run only on the slower, harder tyres, while the rest of the field needed to equip the super-soft compound.

Both Sauber drivers also did not make it into Q2, when Jenson Button was the last to set a fast lap, edging out Felipe Nasr by less than a tenth of a second.

While Max Verstappen made it into Q3, his teammate Sainz hit the wall in turn 19 close to the end of the session, damaging his suspension and front wing, with parts of debris left on the track.

With the session ending under yellow flags, both Force India and both McLaren drivers joined Sainz in elimination, with Nico Hülkenberg fastest in eleventh place on the grid.

Hamilton later stated that the team had problems generating heat in the tyres,[30] essential for the final sector that benefitted high traction.

[28] It was Sebastian Vettel who took pole position, having led the final two parts of qualifying, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who lost time in the first sector after having to back off from Valtteri Bottas in front of him.

The other Ferrari and Red Bull of Räikkönen and Kvyat claimed third and fourth on the grid respectively, followed by both Mercedes cars, who were one and a half seconds down on Vettel's pole time of 1:43.885.

[34] Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso STR10 stalled on the grid and was pushed back to the pit lane, only to start his race shortly after, more than one lap down on the leaders.

[33] Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg held off the two Williams cars of Bottas and Massa, while Lewis Hamilton in front was able to move clear of the pack fighting for sixth place.

More cars came in on lap eleven, leading to heavy traffic that prevented Sainz and Alonso from leaving their pit boxes, costing time.

[33] At the restart, Sainz was caught out by his car being stuck in neutral, losing many places and dropping back to 18th position, but managed to continue.

[33][34] On the same lap, Daniil Kvyat came in for his second pit stop, but trouble with the tyres caused him to lose positions as he dropped to ninth.

On lap 60, Grosjean ran wide and let Felipe Nasr move through into the final point scoring position, tenth.

[36] Second placed Daniel Ricciardo said he felt that an undercut, overtaking Vettel by pitting earlier might have been possible had it not been for the safety car periods.

[37][38] Speaking about the track intruder, Sebastian Vettel stated at the post-race press conference that he "saw him taking a picture" and continued: "I hope it was a good one at least.

[35] While initial reactions in the United Kingdom agreed with the stewards' decision,[33][34] German tabloid Bild called the penalty a "joke".

[47] Jenson Button however followed up on his "mental"-remark during the race, by stating that he felt Maldonado's driving was "very strange" and that he "won't ever change".

The team announced that they intended to "send a written unconditional apology" to the Grand Prix officials and security staff over the incident.