For the first time in four months Lewis Hamilton leads the Formula One world championship; it will have felt more like a tortured aeon for the British driver.

Hamilton’s seventh win of the season here on Sunday – that’s two more than when he won his first, and so far only, title in 2008 – took him past a forlorn-looking Nico Rosberg by three points at the top of the table.

It is the timing of Hamilton’s surge that will most encourage him and demoralise his great rival and Mercedes team-mate, whose season appears to have gone into a tailspin since being asked to apologise for the clash between the two drivers in the race in Spa last month. There are five races remaining, ending with that crude double points affair in Abu Dhabi in November.

Rosberg was also booed on the podium after the previous two races and one wonders whether he feels under fire from a number of AK-47s at the moment. It was an unhappy race for Jenson Button too, as he was forced to retire while his fellow McLaren driver, Kevin Magnussen, received treatment for burns as his car over-heated.

Rosberg quit on the 14th lap but in essence his race never got started. He was stranded on the grid when the other cars set off for their formation lap and then told by his team: “The only thing working on your dash are your gearshift controls.” A faulty loom in his steering column was the problem. By the sixth lap he was already 40 seconds behind Hamilton, stuck in 20th place between the Marussia of Max Chilton and the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson, an unfamiliar view of proceedings for the German.

His problem was just the latest mishap in a surprisingly accident-prone Mercedes garage considering their swaggering dominance this season. Hamilton made a surging start and the famous floodlit street race threatened to become a yawn. But it was reprieved by the emergence of the safety car at the halfway stage, the seventh time this has happened in as many races at the Marina Bay Circuit.

Hamilton had constructed a lead of six seconds when Sergio Pérez’s front wing broke off and became trapped under his car after he made contact with Adrian Sutil, with the Sauber driver at fault.

The safety car came out and appeared to enjoy the attention so much that it overstayed its welcome. Hamilton, who had changed his tyres five laps earlier, was now required to build up a lead of about 28 seconds (the total time lost in an average pit stop) to allow him to change to the soft compound tyre and still come out in front of Sebastian Vettel, who was in second place.

He did manage to build up an advantage of 25.2 seconds before his team brought him in as the driver complained: “I’m not sure whether my tyres are going to explode or not.” When he returned to the track he was behind Vettel but in front of the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. But with superior speed, fresh rubber and DRS, Hamilton had too many weapons for the world champion and went past him a little more than a lap later.

Hamilton’s 29th grand prix victory was watched by his family, who were also in Italy for his victory there. This could partly explain the calmness of the driver, which has come close to serenity in recent weeks. His father, Anthony, said: “He’s got a handle on the perspective of where he is. Win, lose or draw, it’s Formula One, the greatest sport on the planet. Just don’t take it too serious. He’s very calm because he’s enjoying it. When you come into Formula One you’re only here for a period of time. Everything comes to those who wait. But you’ve got to enjoy it. He’s loving it at the moment.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ motorsport chief, was seen speaking to Rosberg immediately after the driver’s retirement. Wolff apologised to his driver for letting him down. He said: “It’s obviously not what we are aiming for. As a driver, when you lose so many valuable points, it’s a bitter moment. At moments like that there’s really nothing you can say.

“First of all in a team you need to be able to apologise. That character goes both ways. We have a missile of a car, but we’re having reliability issues. Lewis caught up a lot of points, ones he lost in Spa. If there was a racing god maybe he was here today.

“It means in the coming races even more grey hair because they are almost even now. You cannot be complacent, you cannot lose even a fraction of a second and Lewis did a superb job when it mattered.”

Vettel said he was a little surprised that Hamilton chose to overtake him when he did. “With the overtaking move I wasn’t sure what he was doing. I gave him all the space to pass me on the inside of the next corner but it seemed he couldn’t wait to get back in the lead. I had to back off and let him through. There was no point fighting.”

Vettel had won the three previous races here. But on Sunday Hamilton looked in the mood to replace him not only as the champion of Singapore but also the world.