Although I've now landed on the other side of the world, I can still hear the banshee scream of Formula 1 cars. My ears are still ringing. My heart is still beating rapidly. And I'm still grinning. The fourth Singapore Grand Prix had it all: racing under lights, a picturesque waterfront backdrop and a healthy serving of controversy.

F1 poses a unique problem for Speedhunters. While we like to cover events that are hard for our readers to attend, Formula 1 is so widely televised that you're probably already aware of the results. So rather than do one of our traditional race reports, I've tried to incorporate tid bits and insights I picked up in the paddock that the TV broadcast missed. 

As the Singapore GP is a night race, the drivers don't adjust to local time. Instead, they stay on European time, leaving the track at 4am and going to bed half an hour before sunrise.

The street course is lined with 1500 light projectors that are four times brighter than those used in stadiums. All of the lights are fed off diesel generators so they aren't reliant on the city's grid. If there's a black-out, there's no chance of the track being plunged into darkness.

Most of the drivers opt for clear visors, which means this is one of the few occasions you can see their eyes as they pass you. Regardless of the lighting, you still need to crank up the ISO when shooting here!

For Singapore, the cars are setup for maximum downforce. Its slow, tight corners are the polar opposite to the previous high speed Monza track.

To improve pickup out of corners, engine maps are tweaked for more response between 8,000-13,000rpm. With 23 corners – the drivers spend 45% of the lap braking – teams also fit larger brake ducts as there are no long straights to cool them down.

Teams also use a softer suspension setting in Singapore to improve traction out of corners and to compensate for the bumps. That said, the cars would still lift a front paw in the air as they were aimed at the apex – blink and you'd miss it.

Turning your body clock upside down and dealing with the 80% humidity are only some of the problems that the team face at Singapore. Something that is often overlooked by fans is track temperature. At most races, the teams face rising track temperatures as the race goes on, however at Singapore, the track – which has absorbed the sun's heat all day – quickly drops the further they go into the night.

This would be my home for three nights. This narrow canyon, which snakes its way alongside the track, is where the marshalls and media do their work. At some points around the track the walkway narrows down to only a couple of feet, which can be challenging when a photographer is coming your way and you're both holding a couple of telephoto lenses.

The DRS activation zone was located after Turn 5, with the drivers opening the rear wing through the flat out Turn 6. To the naked eye you'd be hard pressed to spot any track irregularities – this area was resurfaced prior to the race – but if there are even the slightest of bumps then Formula 1 cars will find them.

As I mentioned in my qualifying article, Turn 6 was a great spot to see the cars bottoming out.

For the start of the race, I stationed myself at the end of the Turn 3. In the background you can see Rosberg taking a detour after being forced wide. When the five red lights went out, Vettel took off like a bat of hell quickly building a 2.5sec buffer over Jenson Button who slotted into second. After five laps, the gap had extended to 7 seconds.

After his excursion, Rosberg found himself between Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa.

On the fourth lap, Michael Schumacher oversteered out of Turn 5, giving Hamilton the opportunity to pull alongside and pass.

At the back of the field, Timo Glock collided with Daniel Ricciardo, knocking his steering out of alignment. "Ricciardo drove into the rear right of the car" Glock later said. "From that moment my steering wheel was not straight, it was quite a lot to the right, and in all the left-hand corners the car was really difficult to drive." Eventually he retired after spinning and hitting the barriers.

Over the past few races, Michael Schumacher has shown plenty of promise and at Singapore he looked like his old self once again. That said, the Singapore Grand Prix won't be a race the seven time world champion will look fondly back on. 

Starting on the fourth row alongside team-mate Nico Rosberg, Schumacher's race ended when he collided with Sergio Perez.

Schumacher was following Perez closely on the inside, trying for a pass when contact was made. The collision launched Schumacher's Mercedes into the air and straight into the barriers.

One thing that went under the radar was Schumacher's dazzling run before the crash. Schumacher had a strong race pace and set a lap time 1.3 seconds faster than team-mate Rosberg's best. Norbert Haug, the VP of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, agreed. "It is a shame for him as he could have perhaps finished in front of Nico."

The safety car period cut down Vettel's lead, however back-markers – here you can see Webber contending with a train of them – gave the German the opportunity to get away. 

Yet again, Lewis Hamilton was punished by the race stewards. While battling with Felipe Massa, Hamilton turned in on the Ferrari. The collision ripped off half of Hamilton's front wing, while Massa had to limp back to the pits with a shredded rear tyre. Hamilton was clearly at fault, and was served a drive through penalty. 

In spite of visiting the pit lane five times during the race, Hamilton fought his way through the field to finish fifth, albeit over a minute behind the leader.

After the race, the controversy of his on-track altercation continued off the track. Massa tried to confront Hamilton about it in the paddock, but was promptly ignored. "There’s no point in me hiding the disappointment and anger I feel at the end of a race that could have delivered a very different result" Massa said to the press. "After the race, I tried to talk to him to clear the air but he walked away without even answering: so I told him what I thought when we found ourselves in the interview area."

Indeed, while Hamilton was being interviewed in the media pen, Massa sarcastically patted him on the back saying "Good job man, very good." This caused Hamilton to whip around to warn the Brazilian not to touch him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this was the third time these two drivers have come together on the track. 

Rosberg had an uneventful race and struggled for pace. The main issue for Rosberg was tyre degradation, and he crossed the line in seventh.

While I've been to F1 races previously, this was my first of this season, and it amazed me to see the differences between the Pirelli and Bridgestone tyres. The Pirellis, which are deliberately designed to degrade quickly, shed an incredible amount of marbles. In the fast sweepers, you could literally see the chunks of rubber being flung off the tyres. A good example of this was the last corner onto the main straight.

When you're looking through the viewfinder, all of the chaos and noise of the race is isolated; all you focus on is the small area that you're pointing your lens at. From this perspective, one of things you notice are the different lines the drivers take. Some come in tight, hugging the kerb… 

…While others position their car a few feet out to take a winder entry.

From afar, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking all F1 cars look the same…

…Up close, the differences in design are quite apparent. Here you can see how Alonso sits in the Ferrari 150 Italia; he is practically peaking over the car's nose.  

Despite Alonso's best efforts to secure a podium, he wasn't able to fend off Mark Webber who slipped past on the restart – much to the jubilation of the Aussies in the grandstands. After the race, team principle Stefano Domenicali revealed the team were expecting a better performance. "The result itself is not a surprise, but the performance definitely was, and in a bad way. We were slower than we expected and we must carefully analyse the reasons why things turned out this way."

Mark Webber had another bad start, dropping him down the order. From the sidelines, it was obvious that the Australian didn't look as comfortable around Marina Bay as team-mate Vettel.

Vettel was riding the kerbs…

…Using every inch of the track…

…And getting on the throttle earlier. Each lap looked like a qualifying flyer, and it was astounding to see Vettel's accuracy at threading the needle, lap after lap. Although Webber could match Vettel through the Sector 1, the German was 7/10ths faster in both Sectors 2 and 3.

The Australian was left ruing his poor getaway and is still searching for his first win of the 2011 season.

The Toro Rossos took a gamble going into the race by electing to run less downforce. While this allowed Alguersuari to clock 305km/h through Intermediate 1 (16km/h faster than Vettel), it was a decision they'd later regret. "If one analyses the weekend overall, I would say we did not have enough downforce, reflected in the fact we had a very good top speed down the straights, but were not fast enough through the corners" driver Sebastien Buemi said afterwards. "But of course, it is always easy to say these things and be wise in hindsight."

In our qualifying post we mentioned Force India's decision not to run in Q3. This was a strategic move to save a set of tyres and would also allow them to choose which compound they'd start on. The tactic worked. Paul Di Resta ran soft-supersoft-soft, while Adrian Sutil opted for supersoft-soft-soft. During the safety car, Force India stacked their cars to change tyres, allowing them to secure a double points finish.

It was a tough weekend for the Renault team. Although the team were aware that their car didn't suit the characteristics of a street circuit, they weren't expecting to finish 15th and 17th. "We never expected our performance to be so embarrasing" team principal Eric Boullier said after the race. "Seeing our cars so low in the classification today, clearly struggling for grip among blue flags, was a painful experience."

Bruno Senna – the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna – may have set the fastest speed through the traps at 293.3km/h, but after emerging from his pit stop he tagged the wall, damaging his front wing. Regardless, Senna finished two places ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov.

For Team Lotus – who were in a bitter pre-season fight to use the Lotus name – the post-race mood was much more up beat with Heikki Kovalainen finishing ahead of the Petrov's Lotus-Renault. "It was an unbelievable feeling. Unbelievable!" said Tony Fernandes, the team principal. "I'm really, really pleased. A good day, probably our best race."

Over the course of the Singapore Grand Prix the drivers negotiated 1403 corners. And with armco and barriers lining each one of them, a momentary lapse in concentration was quickly punished. With only a handful of laps to go, Jaime Alguersuari lost the rear of his Toro Rosso at the Turn 18 tunnel, crashing out against the wall.

With the race nearing the end, the stricken Toro Rosso was left on-track under local waved yellows.

After managing his tyres and fuel for most of the race, McLaren's Jenson Button was allowed to push in his last stint on the supersofts. With 12 laps to go, Button was 12.355 seconds behind leader Vettel, and started slashing into the German's lead.

The gap was brought down to 3.737 seconds with three laps to go, however back markers cost Button the opportunity to get closer to the Red Bull.

"I can understand it is difficult to move over here. Most people were fighting out there but a bit of respect to the cars that are lapping them" Button said in the post-race conference. "They are lapping them for a reason, because they are quicker and they are fighting for a higher position. There were some frustrating moments in the race. One was Kamui [Kobayashi]. I sat behind him for a lap. Couldn’t get past and he finally moved over, and the two Williams were fighting between themselves."

Button's last few laps were truly impressive. He was attacking the kerbs aggressively – sparks were literally flying off the front wing – as he set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:45.454.

Although the safety car cancelled out the margin he had established, Vettel still led every lap to claim a flag-to-flag victory in Singapore.

Vettel is now just one point away from claiming back to back championships, and if he does then he'll be the youngest ever driver to accomplish that. Some teams, such as Ferrari, have already shifted their attention to next year's car design, however Adrian Newey revealed that Red Bull are still developing their current car to secure the constructor's title. With only a few races to go – Japan, Korea, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil – Vettel is almost guaranteed to be crowned this year's champion, but who is your pick to finish second?

What a weekend. I may have blisters on my feet and nursing jetlag, but being at an F1 race never gets old. Particularly if it's at night. 

Next up, we'll take a behind the scenes look into the exclusive F1 paddock.

- Charles Kha

Photos by Charles Kha, Mercedes-GP, Getty Images, Red Bull Content Pool

More F1 on Speedhunters:

Singapore Grand Prix qualifying analysis

Things to Do Before You Die: Become an F1 Junkie