Lewis Hamilton may have retired from his first race since the controversial Belgian Grand Prix last year, but the defending champion still has a comfortable 41 point lead in this year’s title fight.
Hamilton described his disappointing evening under the lights of Singapore: “I was feeling super optimistic. [Vettel, Ricciardo and Raikkonen] in front were on the option [tyre] and I was easily keeping up with them, so I was thinking you know what, we have a race on our hands!”
“The balance was great, it was really under control…but obviously the car just lost power, and I was hoping for a fix but it never came”.
On reflection, Hamilton was happy about his race and confident ahead of the final six races of the season: “I feel content with the job I did this weekend. I drove the best I could, I was quicker than my team mate in the race, and I was feeling good in the car. While it hasn’t been the most positive race for the team, we’ll bounce back.”
“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!”
The Mercedes team will be wanting to investigate their lack of pace this weekend immediately as the next race is less than a week away in Suzuka. The team currently lead the Constructor’s Championship by 153 points from Ferrari, but 258 points are still available. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s title lead was reduced by 12 points to 41 from teammate Nico Rosberg with Sebastian Vettel just nine further back.
