Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won his first-ever Singapore Grand Prix as fireworks flowered across the Marina Bay Circuit skyline.
It was the German's first perfect race as he led from start to finish for all 61 laps to come just 1.7 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
The dominance means Vettel is now just a point shy from being crowned the world champion for the second year in a row, a result which he said he was "capable" of completing in the next five races.
Second-placed Jenson Button thrilled spectators with a last-minute fight when he put pedal to metal and narrowed the drastic gap between him and Vettel. At one point in the night race, the gap was as wide as 20 seconds.
Button closed the crevasse with what he called "a series of 10 to 12 qualifying laps put together" but it was not enough to convert the chance as traffic at the last stretch intervened and held him up.
Still, Button claimed that he was "happy to be in second" and that the result was "as good as it can be". He is now the only person who can mathematically beat Vettel and win the championship.
Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber came third after a bad start from second in the grid saw him dropped places.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Singapore's two-time champion, came fourth while his team-mate Felipe Massa had an incident with Lewis Hamilton, and dropped to ninth after suffering a punctured tyre.
Hamilton was penalised with a drive-through for the early collision with Massa. Both drivers returned to the pit after the incident for repairs but Hamilton who fought his way up the grid to fifth, just a spot down from the position he qualified for.
Mercedes' Michael Schumacher had an early retirement after he clipped the back of Sergio Perez's car and went airborne.
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The seven-time world champion lost control and crashed into the barrier. Fortunately he was uninjured.
Schumacher later coolly brushed off the accident as a "racing situation" and was not affected by it. He attributed it to being surprised by how early Perez had lifted off the accelerator at the turn.
However stewards thought otherwise and gave him an official reprimand at the end of the race. Perez finished 10th.
Force India's Paul Di Resta left with an impressive showing for his first Singapore Grand Prix. He was placed sixth while team-mate and German Adrian Sutil went home with eighth.
Fellow German Nico Rosberg finished seventh.
In two separate incidents, Team Lotus was fined 10,000 euros (S$17,482) for the unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen from his pit stop.
Lotus Renault was fined 7,500 euros (S$13,111for not informing Brunno Senna of his correct race position, thus leading to an avoidable collision with Perez.
The next grand prix is in Suzuka, Japan.
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