Wolff - "Freak" failure caused Hamilton's DNF

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that Lewis Hamilton’s retirement from today’s Singapore Grand Prix was caused by a “freak” component failure. The Brit complained of a lack of power as cars flooded past him before he retired from the race.

“We had a very minor bit - a metal clamp, that broke and had a massive effect," Wolff said, "The clamp was on plenum, and was holding the plenum together and when it jumped off it caused a boost leak.

"It was a freak, yeah. We ran that design for a long time. It's a typical metal clamp and it just broke. Lewis's engine shouldn't have any problem.”

Mercedes’ general lack of pace across the weekend means that Rosberg has only taken 12 points out of Hamilton’s championship advantage.

“The race was going really well, then the engine just lost easily half power, so I was just driving round slowly," he said, "It was like driving on the pit limiter.

"I was dead last, Sebastian was half a lap ahead of me, if not more, so even if the power had come back and I had pushed I would have just wasted an engine.”

Mercedes hope to resume normal service at next week’s Japanese Grand Prix.

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