Hamilton: 'As soon as it rained, I knew where I was going to finish'

Lewis Hamilton says he knew he would win the Singapore Grand Prix the moment it started to rain before the race, but admitted he was fortunate to capitalise on a crash involving Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton qualified fifth in Singapore after struggling all weekend long, but was able to dodge a start-line crash involving Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen to move into the lead of the race at the start through the spray.

Hamilton was able to manage his pace well during the switch from intermediate to slick tyres, charging to victory in F1's first wet night race ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

"You’re just focused on winning. I was just trying to get to the front," Hamilton said, reflecting on the start-line incident.

"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 rains, but unfortunately we just didn’t have the car in the dry.

"But today in rain, those are my conditions."

Hamilton felt the result was all the sweeter after Mercedes' struggles in the dry, and admitted he was lucky to see both Ferraris crash out on the opening lap.

"Obviously yesterday we struggled, and we had no idea what was going to happen today, but we just tried to stay focused and try to get ahead," Hamilton said.

"Of course we were very fortunate with the Ferraris in the beginning. I couldn’t be happier, I’m really grateful. God blessed me today for sure. I capitalised on the incident. Who would have known that would happen?

"Really unfortunate for the Ferraris but a great result for the team, Daniel put up a really good fight today. I enjoyed racing him.