Mercedes is still investigating what caused Lewis Hamilton's power unit to fail when he was leading the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Having led the race from pole position, Hamilton retired from a commanding lead with 16 laps remaining at Sepang as his power unit failed on the pit straight. The problem - coupled with Nico Rosberg's third place - saw Hamilton drop 23 points behind his team-mate in the championship standings with five races to go this season.
Mercedes executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe says work is still ongoing to try and understand what caused the failure and prevent a repeat in future.
"Malaysia was a bitter pill to swallow," Lowe said. "We let Lewis down in a big way. We are continuing to investigate the issue with his engine are doing everything we can to ensure that it is first understood and then contained for the remainder of the season."
However, Lowe does not see any major damage for Hamilton beyond the retirement, saying he is now on an equal footing with Rosberg in terms of power unit availability.
"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."
Hamilton had gained an extra power unit compared to Rosberg when taking a number of power unit penalties during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, with extra components required due to a number of reliability problems earlier in the season.
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