Mercedes has "flown the engine that blew up inside Lewis Hamilton’s car in such dramatic circumstances during Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix back to England" in an effort to find "the root of the problem that led the three-time world champion to question his own team," according to Jack de Menezes of the London INDEPENDENT. Hamilton suggested that someone within the Mercedes camp was "deliberately costing him ground in his championship battle with teammate Nico Rosberg," with the 31-year-old Briton suffering "a series of power unit failures" this season. The result of Sunday’s setback means that Hamilton heads into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with a 23-point deficit to Rosberg and just five races remaining. Hamilton "later backtracked on his accusation" against Mercedes, and the team has responded by flying the engine nearly 7,000 miles from Kuala Lumpur to its base in Brixworth to analyze why it failed on him and "to see if there is any clues" as to why it is Hamilton’s engine that keeps breaking down. Rosberg is "yet to suffer any engine trouble this season" (INDEPENDENT, 10/5).
LOW POINT: GMM reported Hamilton said that he "might sit out practice sessions over the course of the remaining five F1 race weekends." He said, "I have had lower points, but this is the most helpless I can be at this point." Hamilton added, "At this point my concern is that I have two engines and want to make sure I do everything so they can last until the end. If that means I have to not do a session, I will not do a session. I'll do whatever it takes to finish the races" (GMM, 10/4).
