Mercedes F1 team yet to find cause of Lewis Hamilton's failure

Hamilton was on course to reclaim the championship lead from team-mate Nico Rosberg when his engine let go 15 laps from the end of the Sepang race.

It was his third power unit failure of the year, the first two having occurred during qualifying in China and Russia, and leaves him 23 points behind Rosberg with five races remaining.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said on Sunday the team will "leave no stone unturned" in a bid to stop Hamilton suffering another failure in the title run-in.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's Japanese GP, executive director technical Lowe said: "We are continuing to investigate the issue with his engine.

"We are doing everything we can to ensure that it is first understood and then contained for the remainder of the season.

"As it stands, despite the failure of this engine, Lewis now has the same stock of power units as Nico for the remaining five races - including used power units which he can fit for free practice sessions.

"So, hopefully there will be no further impact to his programme."

Wolff added: "There is no rational explanation or pattern in these failures. If there were, we would resolve it."

MERCEDES "LETTING HAMILTON DOWN"

Wolff has conceded Mercedes is letting Hamilton down in his title fight with Rosberg.

When it was suggested to Wolff that Rosberg would be considered a lucky world champion should he go on to claim the championship, he replied: "This is a mechanical sport and these things happen.

"It's a very unfortunate coincidence things have happened like this. For me, it's like six times red in roulette at the casino.

"But I remember 2014 when Nico had a failure at the start of the last race [in Abu Dhabi when he had a shot at beating Hamilton to the title].

"It's frustrating it comes at a crucial moment in the championship, and we are letting him [Hamilton] down this year. It's him this year."

Hamilton believes there is "no use dwelling on these things" and insists he will "find strength from within to fight back over these next five race weekends".

But if he does not find a way to recover and win what would be his fourth F1 world title, Hamilton said he would accept losing it to luck.

"I'll continue to fight more," he said.

"But at the end of the year, if the higher power does not want me to win and be champion, with everything I have given towards it, then I'll have to accept it.

"As long as I end the year knowing I've given it everything, and I've done everything I possibly could do, and we have done everything we can do, that's all you could ask for."