Lewis Hamilton has congratulated Mercedes for its shock win at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Hamilton, who qualified in fifth, had a strong start to take the lead by the third corner, although an accident involving Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen did help his cause.
After the incident on the opening lap, Hamilton led throughout and remained uncallenged by Daniel Ricciardo who followed the Mercedes driver around for two hours in second place.
"Firstly, as always, I wanna really congratulate my team, said Hamilton post-race. "This is a great result, Valtteri did a fantastic job to get a 1-3 up here. It’s amazing points for team.
"Obviously yesterday we struggled. We had no idea what was going to happen today, we just tried to stay focused and get ahead. It was very fortunate with Ferraris at the beginning. I couldn’t be happier, I’m really grateful.
Talking about the lap one incident which was an integral part of the race in Singapore, Hamilton said: "God bless me today, for sure. I capitalised on the incident. Who would have known that would happen.
"It was really unfortunate for Ferrari, but a great result for our team. Daniel put up a really good fight today, so I enjoyed racing him. I was hoping I would get to race with Sebastian at the beginning.
"When I got around to Turn 3 I had Sebastian in front so I was like, ‘I’m going to have a real race here’. Of course it’s better the way it is!" he added.
"I mean you’re just focused on winning, so I was just trying to get to the front. I needed it to rain, and as soon as it rained I knew where I was going to finish. I knew I had the pace when it rained, unfortunately we didn’t have the car in the dry. In the rain, those are my conditions."
By claiming victory in Singapore, Hamilton has extended his lead in the Drives' Championship to 28 points over Sebastian Vettel.
With only six races remaining of 2017, the race at the Marina Bay Circuit has been a key player in this season's world championship battle, with the advantage in the standings swinging into Hamilton's favour.
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