SINGAPORE — It has been the leitmotif of the season: The key to who will win the drivers' title will likely come down to consistency, not necessarily victories. Sebastian Vettel took only his second victory of the season in his Red Bull car at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, but he moved back into second place in the series.

Formula One

A view from the paddock with Brad Spurgeon.

And speaking of consistency, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who went from fifth on the grid to finish third in the race, increased his lead on all the main contenders except Vettel.

With six races now left in the series, the race in Singapore only really served to draw the main leaders closer together. Before the race, Alonso had a 37-point lead on Lewis Hamilton, then in second place. Hamilton dropped out of the race after leading the first 23 laps from the pole position, and Alonso now leads Vettel by 29 points.

Although he has won only three races, Alonso has scored points in all but one of the 14 races — eight of them from the podium. Vettel has won two races and scored points in all but three. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen, who has yet to win a race, is in third position in the series, thanks to finishing in the points in every race but one, like Alonso.

Alonso also has had luck as well as consistency this year, and he more or less pointed that out after the race on Sunday, saying he cannot continue to count merely on luck.

"In the end it went well," he said, "but we definitely can't go on like this. It can't always be the case that my closest rival retires, as happened in the last two races and we can't think of carrying on to the end of the season with qualifying sessions like yesterday's, when our performance was almost a second off the pace."

Hamilton, for his part, drove a brilliant race until he dropped out with a broken gearbox — the fourth race in which he has failed to score points. Curiously, he has fallen into a pattern of following each victory with an abandon, as he did each time he has won this year — after Canada in June, after Hungary in July and after winning in Italy two weeks ago.

But that reality also highlighted that the teams need to ensure consistency as well — by building cars that do not break down. Alonso's Ferrari only failed to finish that one race — the Belgian Grand Prix — because another car ran into him, while Hamilton and Vettel have had mechanical problems. (Vettel's alternator has broken in two races.)

Even Jenson Button, way back in sixth place overall with 119 points, said, a little tongue in cheek, that he needs consistency to win the title this year: "It's nice to be back on the podium — and, if I finish every remaining race in the top one or two, that'll be perfect."

A final interesting addendum: When Jean-Eric Vergne caused a collision earlier this year he was fined €25,000 out of his own pocket by the race stewards. The penalty for Michael Schumacher, who collided with Vergne last weekend and pushed them both out of the race, is a drop of 10 grid positions at the next race.