Night to remember for Fernando Alonso after dramatic win in Singapore

Championship leader Mark Webber finished third in the second Red Bull to increase his lead from five to 11 points in the standings with just four races remaining in the 2010 season.

The Australian again rode his luck, emerging unscathed from a collision with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton that forced his title rival to retire.

Webber has 202 points, Alonso moved up to second overall on 191 after two successive wins in Monza and Singapore, and Hamilton lies a further nine points adrift in third place. Vettel sits one point further back and world champion Jenson Button, who finished fourth, rounds out the top five on 177 points. A mere 25 points, the amount awarded for a victory, separates the top five.

Within seconds of taking the chequered flag Alonso was cranking up the psychological warfare. "We are in a sport where you cannot be 100 per cent fit and focused for all the races, all the month, so we go up and down," the Spaniard said.

"We can say that now, at this point, I am at a peak, 100 per cent motivated. It is good to be at this point now. This year it feels for me the championship has just started so I am very happy. It seems we can be competitive on any track. So let's see in the remaining races. And 'Forza Ferrari'."

Alonso won the scandal-tainted inaugural Singapore race for Renault in 2008 after his Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet crashed deliberately to bring out the safety car and help the Spaniard win.

The safety car was again deployed this time but Alonso, starting aggressively from pole position, drove a brilliant race to hold off Vettel for 61 laps around the floodlit Marina Bay circuit.

After a gruelling two-hour street fight and an almighty last lap tussle, the double champion crossed the line just 0.2 seconds ahead of the German who had qualified alongside on the front row.

Starting the race in fifth place, Webber was the biggest winner of the day after gambling on an early pit stop during the first safety car period after three laps and working his way through the field for a well-earned podium.

Hamilton was the biggest loser, enduring his third retirement in four races.

The Briton thought he had passed Webber on turn seven following the second safety car period but was broadsided by the Australian going into the straight.

"I'm not really sure what happened," he said. "He was in my blind spot so I didn't even know he was still there.All I know is I went in, I didn't see anyone alongside me and the next thing I know is my tyre has blown and that's it."

Button was downhearted after finishing fourth but insisted McLaren can continue to improve in the closing stages of the season to mount an assault on both the drivers' and constructors' titles.

"This one did hurt a little bit with Webber finishing in front of me but it's still only a race victory between us," said Button. "We all race until the last race and I won the title by a fairly small margin last year. It shows that there is everything to play for.

"Lewis's misfortune today with Webber proves that one bad race can cost you a lot of points. Consistency is important, you need to be on the podium.

"At this point of the season you have to remain positive and I am still in a good position. Our car wasn't as quick around here as we hoped and it's a really tough circuit."

Button is now looking forward to the Japan Grand Prix in two weeks to reignite his title defence with a better car than the one he had this week.

"We go to Japan happy. We have a good upgrade for that race and it was something we tried to put on the car for this weekend but we couldn't for reliability reasons," he added.

"Hopefully that will be with us for Suzuka, a circuit where we go better than here, so that will be a double whammy and we will have a competitive car. This one was always going to be our toughest so it was not too bad to come away with fourth place and hopefully we can do a lot better next time."

The race ended in bizarre fashion with Heikki Kovalainen, already lapped, steered his flaming Lotus to the side of the finishing straight.

With smoke and flames billowing out behind him, the Finn jumped out and grabbed an extinguisher handed through the wire mesh to put out the fire himself as cars raced past.