Lewis Hamilton took another important step towards a fifth Formula 1 championship this past Sunday with victory at the Singapore GP.

It was a very impressive performance from the Briton and his Mercedes team at what has often been a bogey race for them in recent years, indeed, expectations at the start of the weekend were that Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari could dominate.

Instead, the German and the Scuderia were once again left at odds with each other as an aggressive strategy proved to be the wrong one and left Vettel a distant third, 40 seconds behind the race winner.

For Hamilton, it marked a fourth win in five races dating back to his somewhat fortuitous success in Germany, when his main rival crashed out while leading in a brief rain shower allowing Lewis to triumph from 14th.

Good luck at key times is one theory many will put out should the 33-year-old go on to tie Juan Manuel Fangio as a five-time F1 champion, but the man himself believes it has been about much more than that.

“I don’t see it as we’ve ‘lucked in’,” he was quoted by RaceFans. “When Vettel hit the wall the other day [Friday] and damaged the car and lost running on the track, that’s not us ‘lucking in’.

“I take a lot of pride in making sure that I don’t put myself in those positions and I know I’ve got a team relying on me as his team’s relying on him and Kimi.

"There’s a lot of pressure on us as drivers and athletes. There’s only small percentages you get wrong and it has bigger ramifications.”

It is also thought that most of Hamilton's wins have come against the grain, with Ferrari considered to have the faster car but failing to produce the results.

The difference, the Mercedes driver believes, is how the two teams have been able to optimise their relative car performance.

“We haven’t brought any upgrades. We brought an upgrade to Monza, we didn’t bring an upgrade here, but naturally, we’re always working on our understanding on a technical side to try and improve," he explained.

“I think ultimately we are over-delivering. Our car’s true pace is 100 and we’re pulling out 102. That’s an awesome, feeling.

“If you could see I just had this meeting with the guys, you could just see the energy with everyone. it’s really, for me, I find it really inspiring. Considering I’ve been with the guys for six years they could be like ‘let’s get over and done with it, we’ve won tons of races’ but they’re not."

Looking ahead to the final six races with a 40-point cushion in his favour, however, Hamilton isn't going to start resting on his laurels just yet.

“We’re really just taking it one race at a time knowing that Ferrari has had quite good pace the last few races,” he said.

“Of course it feels great but I’ve been here a long, long time so I know I can’t get ahead of myself, we can’t get ahead of ourselves.

“We have to continue to remain humble and just keep working as hard as we can."