Let's be fair - the Mercedes is not seconds ahead, and certainly not on a track such as Singapore (indeed the gap was a couple of tenths generally). Red Bull and Ferrari were trying to make their tyres last until the end, so were intentionally driving slower through the corners in order to stretch them out.
Hamilton would likely have been the same if he'd gone for softs at the 2nd stop, but he was forced into making the extra stop as he hadn't used the softs up until that point.
Exactly, I wish people would realise that tires/fuel is still the limit. People using their pace and different times and strategies doesn't make one car really that much faster.
The pace was dictated by Vettel and Riccy stopping early and having to go 30 laps. You don't go normal pace for 30 laps, you have to manage the tires so you start on a slow pace and end up very slow at the end. hamilton was banging around as fast as possible because he had to and because he was purposefully using his tires up. It's likely that if ALonso could have gotten past the red bulls then he'd have been faster, able to push his slightly newer tires harder and Hamilton, should probably still have got him on the new tires at the end but it would have been closer.
I can't remember exactly which Canada race it was, guessing 2012, Hamilton out in the front but wanting a tire stop, ALonso and Vettel behind, Hamilton stops the other two don't. Hamilton they destroyed them for pace on fresh tires, think he was taking 3-4 seconds a lap out of them and was way ahead at the end. Then they lost places to guys who had been miles back, had they pitted they would have stayed in 2nd/3rd place and instead one or both of them lost a couple of places. Was the Merc 3-5 seconds a lap faster than the Red Bull that year, not a chance, poor strategy created a massive difference in pace.
Was it Bahrain with the safety car when Hamilton/Rosberg fighting each other hard were 1-1.5seconds faster a lap in the final stint, that is a much fairer comparison of pace as most were on the same relative strategy in terms of tire life.
Red bull HAVE had that gap over teams at several stages and for an entire season over the past 4 years. Mostly it's softer tires and lack of pressure from a competent team mate that didn't show that pace.
In literally dozens of races now Vettel cruised away at 1-1.5seconds a lap, the difference is he'd stop with a 5-10 second gap and protect the car, not waste tires of fuel and leave himself options for safety cars. The big difference here is that After pulling out a gap Vettel was under no pressure so pulled back the pace because Webber couldn't stay in touch with him. When Hamilton or Rosberg does it, the other car is pushing them so they can't just cruise out a decent gap and stop... because then the guy behind would pass them.
Today Hamilton did cruise out to a 5-10 second gap, then backed off, same thing Vettel had done for years.
). 
