Lewis Hamilton admits engine failures "not acceptable"

Lewis Hamilton admitted the engine failure which cost him the lead of the Malaysian GP this weekend was "a bit of an odd one".

Hamilton had converted his pole position into a lead and was in complete control of the race until lap 41, when his engine gave up on him.

Speaking later to the BBC, Hamilton said: "My question is really to Mercedes. We've got so many engines made for eight drivers, and only mine are the ones that are failing this year, and someone has to give me some answers because it's just not acceptable, that we're fighting for the championship and only mine are failing. 

"This doesn't sit right with me."

Mercedes-AMG F1 confirmed the retirement by tweeting "unexpected mechanical failure of the internal combustion engine. No prior warning signs. It just... went..." His teammate Nico Rosberg managed to finish third, extending his points advantage in the drivers' championship to 23 points. There are just five races left on the calendar.

"It felt great up until then," Hamilton added, "had great pace, and then it just happened on the straight. I couldn't believe it. I'm just going to try and recollect myself and get myself together for the next race next weekend and try to perform as I did this weekend."

When pushed on whether this was a decisive moment in the championship battle with Rosberg, Hamilton noted there had been "many" decisive moments already, adding: "something or someone doesn't want me to win this year, but I won't give up, I'll keep pushing."

Hamilton later clarified that "it feels a little bit like the man above, or a higher power, is intervening a little bit".

Speaking after the race, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff, said: "It’s hard to know how to sum up a day like today. I just have no words for what happened to Lewis. We feel his pain. This is a mechanical sport, with so much technology, but sometimes you get blindsided by situations with no rational explanation. It’s a freaky coincidence as to why he has suffered the majority of the engine problems this year – like the odds of throwing red six times in a row in the casino. But we take a forensic approach to our work in how we build the engines and how we analyse the failures. We always have done and we will do so again. Our guys will get to the bottom of what happened and learn from it.

"But I don’t want to talk about forensics on a day like this – I want to focus on how Lewis responded in the aftermath," he added. "We let him down today and we are beating up ourselves about it. And you know, if you’re leading the race, about to get back in the Championship lead and then your engine blows up… then every answer is allowed in front of a TV camera. It’s completely understandable. But instead of venting frustration, he came back to the garage and shook the hand of every team member; we talked in a small group and we were all really down. Then he stood in front of the team and found the words to lift everybody and help us recover quickly for Japan. This is what the great drivers do, the true Champions, and I must express my respect for how he conducted himself today."

Merc's Paddy Lowe added: "Lewis came into the race on top form after his strongest weekend of the year so far. Not just in terms of his qualifying and race performance, but also in terms of the homework he’d put in with the team throughout Friday and during Saturday morning. It feels incredibly unjust that he should suffer this failure at such a moment. While we’re deeply disappointed for Lewis, we take our hats off to Nico after a fantastic comeback drive."

Daniel Ricciardo went on to win the race, followed by his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.