Singapore stories: The driver who shouted 'No!' at team orders

At the start. Probably during Saturday's qualifying, actually. Daniel Ricciardo got a great start, but not as good as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was stunning through qualifying and cruised round Marina Bay during the race. There was a time when Kimi Raikkonen began to close in from third, bunching up the leaders and putting pressure on Ricciardo, but the safety car spells effectively put paid to any real overtaking.

1 out of 5: Dreadful weekend for Lewis Hamilton, whose car lost power about a third of the way through. As his team barked suggestions to him over the radio, the world champion grumbled, “That doesn’t WORK!” to each of them. Eventually, going backwards through the field, he lost patience, telling them: “You need to stop me!” They agreed. He’ll go again next week.

[REPORT: Hamilton forced to retire in Singapore]

Jenson Button is always gold, managing a nice line in sarcasm even at high speed and G-force. His team tried to tell him about the race tactics plus advice on how to pilot his car, reeling off extensive instructions, to which he responded suavely, “Hmm. Anything else?” You can imagine the Roger Moore-esque eyebrow lift.

Honourable mention to Sebastian Vettel for his laconic, “There is a man on the track,” over the radio as the second safety car spell began due to a track invader.

Max Verstappen moving in on Romain Grosjean, 14 laps from the end, and taking eighth spot in his Toro Rosso – all the more incredible bearing in mind he stalled on the grid, and had to head to the pits to start from there.

Having said that, he flagrantly disobeyed team orders, so his bosses might be less pleased with his display; he was asked to concede a place to his team-mate Carlos Sainz and flatly refused to do so. “Just do it,” came the reply. He never did. Indeed he even shouted "No!" at his team over the radio. Expect fall-out from that.

Little evidence of masterplans today – the leading trio got good starts and held on; meanwhile, cars failed all over the shop, with only 14 actually finishing. Hamilton seemed adamant that his team’s strategy would have secured him a place on the podium. Unfortunately, we will never know, and the genius tactics will remain secret.

Props to Alexander Rossi, finishing 14th in his first F1 race for Manor Marussia. Getting round safely deserves congratulations; managing it without any radio link to the team deserves unending admiration.

Oh, McLaren. You think you’ve solved the problems with your Honda engines and you can get your cars around a race course, and then the gear box falls out of one and you utterly fail to conduct a timely pit-stop on the other...before the gearbox falls out of that one too.

This place is basically a party, with performers including singer Jimmy Cliff and Spandau Ballet. Pharrell has been lurking throughout the weekend.

And yet with all those recognisable faces around, they asked Eddie Jordan – in a bright cerise high-necked shirt – to do the podium interviews.