"Something just doesn't feel right," Hamilton tells Sky F1. "There's been 43 engines from Mercedes and only mine have gone - it's odd"
Sunday 2 October 2016 12:20, UK
Lewis Hamilton's world championship hopes have gone up in smoke after his engine blew while the Mercedes driver was leading the Malaysia GP.
It was a cruel and undeserved blow for the Englishman which may yet prove terminal for his hopes of clinching a third successive world championship.
"I just can't believe that there's eight Mercedes cars and only my engines are the ones that have gone this way," Hamilton told Sky F1.
"Something just doesn't feel right. There's been 43 engines from Mercedes and only mine have gone - it's odd."
Hamilton, who has been beset by mechanical failures throughout the season, was over 20 seconds clear of the field with 15 laps remaining when a fire broke out at the back of his stricken W07.
Had he won the race, Hamilton would have regained the lead of the world championship but has now fallen 23 points behind team-mate and solitary title rival Nico Rosberg with just five races remaining.
Hamilton pulled off the track and crouched disconsolately by the side of the circuit as the Sepang marshals tended to his broken-down car.
"That was stolen from him, he had that race under control," sympathised Sky F1's Martin Brundle. "He was head and shoulders above the rest all weekend."
Mercedes have confirmed that the blow-out was caused by an internal combustion engine failure which occurred without warning.
Don't miss the F1 Report for all the reaction and analysis from the Malaysia GP. Former F1 world champion Damon Hill and The Sun's Ben Hunt join Natalie Pinkham in the studio at 8:30pm on Wednesday on Sky Sports F1.
