Mercedes reveal cause of Hamilton's Sepang failure

Mercedes have revealed the cause of Lewis Hamilton’s engine failure during last week’s Malaysia Grand Prix via Twitter.

The Briton saw a near-certain victory taken away from him at Sepang when his internal combustion engine blew up just 15 laps from the end.

The power unit was fairly new, having been one of the two installed at the Belgian Grand Prix, and now the Mercedes team have given a detailed account of what occurred.

“Our analysis has shown that Lewis’ engine suffered a big-end bearing failure, this happened without warning after 618km and was preceded by a loss of oil pressure in Turn 15,” read the tweet.

“For this race weekend, Lewis will revert to his Singapore unit and Nico will use his Malaysia engine.”

Furthermore, in the statement made by Mercedes, they went on to reveal: “Planned new engines for five customer drivers this weekend will be delayed to contain further possible learning from the strip of the failed unit. They will continue to use their units from Malaysia.”

A more conservative oil specification and revised running parameters on all eight Mercedes powered cars will also be in effect to attempt to prevent any further failures.

The timing of this failure is unfortunate, to say the least for the three-time world champion. With five races to go, Hamilton has a 23-point deficit to teammate Nico Rosberg.

However, Hamilton has come back from a bigger points gap this season and the five circuits left this season have often favoured the Briton in the past. But, as this season has certainly shown, past form is no guarantee of future success.

Hamilton has taken to social media this past week to show support for his team, with the speculation and conspiracy theories that surround Mercedes from certain corners of his fanbase.