Mercedes Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is odds on for the world championship heading to the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix after his dramatic Singapore race victory.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Champagne moment for Lewis Hamilton on the podium after winning the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix [Picture: Mercedes-Benz]Champagne moment for Lewis Hamilton on the podium after winning the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix [Picture: Mercedes-Benz] (Image: Mercedes-Benz)

Bookies make the 29-year-old F1 racer from Hertfordshire 4/7 to win the Drivers’ Championship after overtaking Nico Rosberg in the standings on Sunday.

He leads his Silver Arrows rival by three points in the title race with five grands prix to go, having started the day 22 points adrift. Rosberg, who did not finish in Singapore, is out to 6/4 from even money.

It looks like it could go all the way however, with Hills offering 1/6 that the title goes all the way to the final race in Abu Dhabi, where double points will be available.

Hamilton’s impressive win at the spectacular Marina Bay Street Circuit means that he is just two races away from Nigel Mansell’s British record of 31 grand prix victories, and he is 4/1 to equal the record before the end of the season and 7/2 to break it this year.

He will be looking to add to his 29th career Formula One wins in Japan. Speaking in the paddock after his Singapore GP success, Hamilton said: “Of course, it’s not an ideal result with Nico retiring, so that shows we still have work to do to get on top of reliability.

“But it’s been a great job from the team at everyone at the factories to make this mega car. Now we need to keep pushing hard for Japan in two weeks’ time.”

It was a bittersweet Singapore weekend for Mercedes-Benz Motorsport chief Toto Wolff, with Hamilton taking the chequered flag and Rosberg retiring.

Wolff said: “What an incredible race from Lewis. After the Safety Car came in, it needed qualifying laps every time round to build the gap – and he did that faultlessly.

“These are the days when drivers like Lewis show what makes the difference between star drivers and the superstar drivers. Congratulations to him.”

The Mercedes supremo added: “On the other side, it was a bitter afternoon for Nico. It looks like a loom in the steering column failed and that was the root of his problems.

“When he came back to the garage, I told him we were sorry to have let him down – and he handled the whole situation in a very professional way.

“We have a missile of a car this year but these reliability issues keep tripping us up.

“The parts will be sent back to base for forensic analysis by our reliability group.

“We have an excellent team dedicated to quality and we will track down this failure and make sure it does not happen again.”

Wolff continued: “Looking at the Championship, the pressure is now on for both drivers with such a small gap and five races to go.

“It will give us a few more grey hairs – but it’s great for the fans of Formula One.”

Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe also praised Hamilton for his sublime drive and commiserated with Rosberg.

Speaking after Sunday’s night race, Lowe said: “That was a bittersweet afternoon for the team – a fantastic win for Lewis tempered by disappointment at the technical problem with Nico’s car.

“Although we have not yet fully understood the causes, Nico suffered an electronic problem within his steering column.

“This manifested itself on his laps to the grid and we changed the steering wheel on the grid in the hope this might resolve the issue.

“But it became clear as soon as he started the race that only his gear change paddles were working.

“This meant he had no control over the clutch, or the many different functions he manages from the steering wheel.

“Among other things, he had significantly reduced energy deployment, which meant he couldn’t pass even the slower cars he encountered.

“At the pit stop, the car became stuck in neutral and we decided to retire because we judged that the mechanism required to restart would have been too dangerous. I can only offer my commiserations and apologies to Nico.”

Lowe added: “On the other side of the garage, Lewis delivered a fantastic performance. The pace was strong and our tyre endurance better than that of our competitors.

“We were backed into a corner by the Safety Car at the mid-point of the race, when others decided to go to the end on the prime tyre.

“But we stuck to our guns, made the right strategy call to stay out and Lewis did the rest.

“We had hoped to pull the full pit-stop gap over Vettel before Lewis made his final stop but the tyres didn’t quite last long enough.

“That left Lewis with a little work to do when he emerged from the pits, but he enjoyed a significant performance advantage on fresh tyres and made a good pass into Turn 7. It was a very controlled drive and a hard-earned win.”