Hamilton: I still have faith and hope

Lewis Hamilton says he has “100 percent confidence” in his Mercedes team despite cryptically stating that “someone doesn’t want me to win this year” after his Sepang engine failure.

Hamilton was racing towards the victory in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, 20 seconds ahead of the battling Red Bull team-mates.

It was a victory that would have seen him regain the lead in the championship race as his title rival Nico Rosberg was down in fourth place after a first lap collision.

But disaster struck when Hamilton’s engine went up in flames, putting him out of the grand prix.

His misfortune elevated Rosberg to third and, instead of losing points to Hamilton, the German extended his advantage in the standings to 23 points.

In the immediate aftermath, Hamilton questioned why “only mine” failed while adding that “someone doesn’t want me to win this year.”

However, hours later, the reigning World Champion insists he has every confidence in the Mercedes team.

“On the straight, I just lost power all of a sudden. You could hear something blew and I obviously had to stop.

“Honestly, you’ve got to understand it from my point of view.

“On one side, we’ve had the most incredible success these past two years, for which I’m so grateful. These guys work so hard and we’re all feeling the pain right now.

“When you get out of the car – that feeling you have after leading the race and then your car fails – it’s pretty hard to say positive things at the time.

“As I said in the TV interviews, Mercedes have built 43 engines or however many it …

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