Hamilton’s miracle win in Singapore

Singapore : Lewis Hamilton won a chaotic and rain-hit Singapore Grand Prix yesterday to seize control of the Formula One world championship as his title rival Sebastian Vettel crashed out on the first lap.

Ferrari’s Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen all went out just after the start of the first wet race in Singapore, which saw three safety cars and finished with only 12 drivers.

It all played perfectly into the hands of Mercedes driver Hamilton, who went from fifth on the grid to first and held off Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo to clinch his third win in a row. With his 60th race victory and seventh this season, Hamilton -- who said he needed a “miracle” after struggling in qualifying -- stands 28 points ahead of Vettel with six grands prix left this year.

“Guys what can I say -- what a turnaround today! Fantastic job with the team strategy,” Hamilton said over the radio, before leaping out of his car and hugging his engineers.

“God blessed me today, for sure,” he said later, dripping with champagne. “I capitalised on the incident -- who would have known that would happen?  “It was really unfortunate for the Ferraris but a great result for the (Mercedes) team.”

Ricciardo finished second for the third straight occasion in Singapore, while Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz finished a career-best fourth.

Sergio Perez was fifth and Jolyon Palmer, still digesting the news that he has been replaced by Sainz at Renault next season, placed sixth -- also his best result in F1. Some drivers had expressed concerns about visibility in the wet under floodlights, but the night race had hardly started when it lost three of the first four cars on the grid.

Raikkonen ploughed into Red Bull’s Verstappen on the first corner, taking both cars out of the race and also heavily shunting Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.

Pole-sitter Vettel, who had been looking to reclaim the world championship lead from Hamilton, spun further ahead, lost his front wing and ended up reversing down the track, before also retiring.