Intercooler clamp failure caused Hamilton DNF
Lewis Hamilton had a race to forget at Singapore, where after a difficult qualifying session for the entire Mercedes team, he encountered a power unit issue that forced him into retirement halfway into the race.
Hamilton raced steadily in fifth position in the first part of the race, ahead of team mate Rosberg until a loss of boost pressure caused him to drop down the pecking order, lapping 15s slower than usual.
"On lap 26, Lewis suffered a loss of power which couldn't be resolved, forcing him down the field and leading to his retirement on lap 32. Lewis' problem was diagnosed as a loss of boost pressure caused by the failure of a clamp between the intercooler and plenum."
Despite missing out on a lot of points, Hamilton didn't prove too downbeat, saying the car's pace was good enough, and better than it was in qualifying on Saturday.
"The race was going very well. For me it felt like I was driving at my best in the race", Hamilton said.
"My pace was really good when I started to lose power. I felt like the team was working as hard as they could and these kinds of things just happen. It's unfortunate for the team as I was feeling real good out there, so optimistic. But it was better to retire and save the engine. We will work really hard on figuring out what it was but I am not worried about losing this engine. Our reliability is really high as we had an amazing season so far. It's still a long way to go and I know I lost some points today, but I was fast and on form and I will make sure I bring that out to Suzuka to fight back!"
Toto Wolff agreed with Hamilton's analysis, underlining how little details can cost a lot.
"We tried everything we could to resolve the loss of power while he was out on track but there was nothing we could do and we retired the car when that became clear. He lost valuable points today."
Generally speaking, Mercedes did have a very difficult weekend, with Rosberg's 4th place the 'highpoint' for the usually dominating Mercedes team. Rosberg and Lauda in particular proved worried about the team's inability to match other cars on ultimate pace due to their inability to get the tyres working as they wanted them to.
"Ever since we put the car on track on Friday morning, we were on the back foot and it only improved a little today", Wolff continued.
"There were times in the race when the pace looked okay but the guys in front were managing their tyres, too, so we must be realistic about our level of performance at this circuit. Now we need to analyse everything precisely, understand the wrong turn that we took this weekend to learn the right lessons - and then close this chapter. One bad weekend doesn't overshadow our achievements so far this year but we know that there is no room for complacency after a weekend like this. We will aim to hit back strongly next weekend in Suzuka."
Following the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton leads the Drivers' Championship by 41 points from Nico Rosberg.
