SINGAPORE: Lewis Hamilton took a huge stride towards a fourth Formula One title on Sunday with victory in an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix after Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel crashed out at the start.

The Mercedes driver now has a 28-point cushion over the German with six of the 20 races remaining.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who also emerged from the opening lap carnage unscathed, was second for the third year in a row with Finland’s Valtteri Bottas completing the podium for Mercedes.

“God blessed me today for sure,” said Hamilton, who set a lap record on his way to a third win in a row, in podium interviews.

“I capitalised on the incident. Who would’ve known that would happen. It’s really unfortunate for Ferrari but great for the team [Mercedes].”

The Briton cashed in after Vettel, Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s front row contender Max Verstappen smashed into each other as they raced off the wet starting grid and into the first corner.

Ferrari blamed Verstappen, while Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the 19-year-old was a victim “of somebody else’s accident”.

Carlos Sainz Jr. secured a career-best fourth place for Toro Rosso, with Force India’s Sergio Perez in fifth.

Vettel took pole with a super performance in qualifying, but his form didn’t translate to the race.

Following a massive downpour several hours beforehand, more heavy showers soaked the Marina Bay circuit just before the race.

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

Vettel spun further ahead and lost his front wing, a crash that also ended his race.

“Obviously it sucks being on the wrong side of the track now, but that’s what it is,” Vettel shrugged after returning to the paddock.

Hamilton picked his spot, avoiding any danger as he moved into the lead, with Ricciardo jumping up from third on the grid to second.

After a few laps behind the safety car, the race resumed on lap 7 with huge spray flying up from the cars.

The safety car came out again shortly after, as Daniil Kvyat ploughed his Toro Rosso into the barriers.

Mercedes declined to pit Hamilton under the safety car but after the restart, he reeled off a string of fastest laps on the slowly drying track, extending his lead over Ricciardo.

Ricciardo and then Hamilton pitted for ultra-soft tyres after laps 28 and 29 and the Briton emerged 8.7 seconds ahead with 50 minutes left on an increasingly quick track.

Hamilton had a healthy advantage of 9.6 seconds when Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson spun and stopped on Anderson Bridge, bringing out a third safety car and wiping out the Briton’s lead.

But Hamilton shot off after the restart to maintain the gap from Ricciardo and as he finally took the chequered flag, the grandstand came to its feet and fireworks lit up the night sky.

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen both retired late in the race to bring the total number of casualties to eight.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017