Hamilton gets the 'miracle' he needed in Singapore

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After struggling through qualifying on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton said he needed a miracle to salvage his Singapore Grand Prix. Then the rain came just as the race was getting underway, and the miracle was on.

"Obviously yesterday we struggled and we had no idea what was going to happen today," the Mercedes driver said after the race.

"You're just focused on winning. I was just trying to get to the front. I needed it to rain - as soon as it rained, I knew where I was going to finish.

"Although I didn't pray for a miracle and I didn't pray for anything to happen. When it rained I though, 'This is it - I can win from fifth in the rain.' I was so sure I was going to be able to do something.

"I knew I had the pace when it rained. Unfortunately we just didn't have the car in the dry. But today it was raining, and those are my conditions."

Hamilton wins Singapore Grand Prix after Ferrari disaster

What no one had counted on was his main championship rival Sebastian Vettel being swept away following a first corner accident with his own Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

"I just saw there was commotion at the beginning," recalled Hamilton. "Braked down into turn 1, I took a really wide line thinking these guys are going to trail into me.

"Fortunately I'd passed before that happened. Obviously Kimi went into the next guy - Verstappen," he continued. "I was hoping I was going to get to race with Sebastian at the beginning.

"When I got round to turn 2, or turn 3, I had Sebastian in front so I was like, 'I'm going to have a real race here!'" he added. "Then Sebastian spun and it happened right in front of me. I was hoping he wouldn't collect me and obviously he didn't. I was like, 'Okay, the race is on - and I'm in the lead!'"

Although the conditions remained tricky for much of the race, with three safety cars to navigate, Hamilton was able to keep of of range of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

"Daniel put up a good fight today, I enjoyed racing him," he said. "Valtteri did a fantastic job to get a 1-3 up here."

Hamilton admitted that he had been expecting to come out of this weekend trailing Vettel in the championship, rather than stretching his lead in the standings to 28 points.

"Came here today with the idea of damage limitation, thinking 'Geez, I'm going to come out of here again behind in the championship.' And now I'm much further ahead. Definitely count my blessings and don't take it for granted.

"This is I think our weakest circuit so to come away with a win here - 100 points whatever it is in the constructers' championship - is definitely our goal.

"Whatever it is, I'll definitely take it. I love the positivity, the energy that's come from today. I felt great in the car, I loved the conditions, I loved driving in that - I loved it out in the rain, I'm grateful for it. Just got to try and continue with the same approach I've had."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.