Lewis Hamilton has claimed a surprise win at an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix with Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo finishing second for Red Bull and Hamilton’s Mercededs teammate Valtteri Bottas third.

Hamilton, started from fifth on the grid but took the lead on the opening lap when pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel took out both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his own Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen in a first corner crash.

Try as he might Ricciardo simply didn’t have the race pace to catch the Mercedes of Hamilton, who managed to pull away at every re-start whether it was in the wet or dry, in a race that featured three safety cars.

Ricciardo had started from third on the grid and managed to avoid the first corner incident, where Vettel moved to his left to cover Verstappen but pushed him into Raikkonen, who had got off to a flying start and was alongside the Dutchman.

The incident left Verstappen, who has been involved in a number of crashes this season unimpressed with Vettel.

“Initially Sebastian saw I was a little bit better off the line than him and he wanted to close me off and didn’t see Kimi on the left,” Verstappen said.

“If you are fighting for the title you shouldn’t take those risks.

“It wasn’t very cleaver.”

Ricciardo had his last chance to close in on Hamilton when Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson crashed on lap 38 and the safety car was deployed but Hamilton pulled away from the re-start and held on to win by over four seconds from the Australian.

For Ricciardo it is his fourth consecutive podium finish in Singapore, while for Hamilton it was his third win at the venue as he extended his lead over Vettel in the world championship.