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Hamilton takes F1 championship lead from Rosberg post Singapore GP win

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ANI London
Last Updated : Sep 22 2014 | 11:35 AM IST

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has taken the lead in the Formula One World Championship for the first time since May after he clinched victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton's title rival and teammate Nico Rosberg had to retire with electronics problems to slip three points behind with five races to go and 150 points available.

The Briton briefly lost the lead to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel at his final pit stop but soon swept past to take his seventh win, The BBC reported.

Vettel took second after a battle with Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Rosberg had been in trouble with his car from the moment he tried to leave the garage before the race. He had gear selection issues, which were not helped by changing his steering wheel.

The German had to start from the pits because he could not get off the dummy grid at the start of the formation lap. But the car was running without hybrid power and he could not even pass Marcus Ericsson's Caterham.

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The team intended to try to reset the car at his first pit stop but Rosberg could not engage a gear and was forced to retire.

Rosberg said that the steering wheel did not work and then the whole car wasn't working, adding that they need to find out what the problem was because again they have a reliability problem. He said that Mercedes has had a few this year and that's their weakness.

Vettel held on for second in the race, with Ricciardo in the final podium position. Behind Alonso, Williams's Felipe Massa made his tyres last to the end from his final pit stop on lap 22 to take fifth.

But in a frantic last few laps, Massa's teammate Valtteri Bottas could not do the same and dropped from sixth to 11th as he lost all grip. Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne and Force India's Sergio Perez benefited from late pit stops to charge up to sixth and seventh in the closing stages, passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who took eighth.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was ninth from McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, who was battling cramps and dehydration because he could not drink from an overheated bottle in the demanding conditions, the report added.

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First Published: Sep 22 2014 | 11:20 AM IST

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