SINGAPORE: Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday to take the Formula One championship lead from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg after the German retired with steering wheel problems.

The Briton overcame the twin Red Bull challenge of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo to move three points clear of Rosberg with five races remaining.

“I was dreaming it last night... I just want to say huge thanks to my team,” Hamilton said in a podium interview. “I was so excited, I was looking for a clean weekend, and I had it.

Hamilton led comfortably before he was forced into a late pitstop, giving up the race lead to Vettel. However, Hamilton quickly passed the German to win by 13.5 seconds at the Marina Bay circuit to move to 241 points, ahead of Rosberg on 238.

Rosberg turned up for the Marina Bay street circuit night race 22 points clear of pole setter Hamilton.

But the German endured a wretched time, his car failing to set off for the warm-up lap from second on the grid. He eventually started from the pitlane, but retired on lap 15, to leave Hamilton to win and take a three point advantage to the Japanese Grand Prix on October 5.

“It would have been a hard-core race if Nico was in the race with me as the car was very strong,” Hamilton said.

Vettel finished second, just holding off Ricciardo. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fourth, while Felipe Massa took fifth place for Williams.

Job-hunting Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, due to be replaced by 16-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen next year, finished sixth for Toro Rosso ahead of Sergio Perez of Force India, Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Kevin Magnussen of McLaren.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd , 2014