Brit slipped back to eighth after slow getaway but says "I made a mistake"; Championship is out of his hands for first time this season; Wolff believes start was down to clutch problem
Sunday 9 October 2016 10:40, UK
A dejected Lewis Hamilton has refused to blame his disastrous Japanese GP start on difficult track position, admitting he made the mistake.
The world champion started second on the grid but quickly lost six places after the poor getaway, eventually fighting back to third, and is now 33 points behind Nico Rosberg in the title race after his team-mate's cruise to victory.
Hamilton looked concerned when monitoring a damp patch by his starting position before the race but the Brit, who has previously stated that clutch problems could cost him the title, has taken responsibility for his poor getaway.
"I don't think the damp patch had really anything to do with it," Hamilton said. "I made a mistake. Then working my way up from there was tricky, but I did the best I could.
"I just got some wheel-spin - I'm not really sure why."
It's not the first time Hamilton has struggled off the line in 2016. From his seven pole positions, he has only kept the lead after Turn One twice, while he has lost a total 23 places on the first lap. Taking Rosberg's first-corner Malaysia GP collision out of the equation, that's nine more than the German this season.
"The clutch obviously is not perfect we are giving to them," responded Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. "It's difficult to handle and we've tried to optimise that.
"Our first assessment is it didn't function well on the clutch release, but that is obviously an over-simplification. It is a complicated mechanism to deploy and that didn't function today."
With just four races remaining, Hamilton now faces a mammoth task as he seeks a third consecutive world championship. Even winning every grand prix may not be enough and, for the first time this year, the destination of the title is out of his hands.
Following his media snub on Saturday, Hamilton then cancelled his post-race press briefing to fly home with Niki Lauda and added: "I'm looking forward to getting home and on to the next race."
Sky F1's Martin Brundle doubted whether the 31-year-old was completely focused heading into the race due to the storm that has surrounded him, with the tension set to ramp up again ahead the US Grand Prix.
But Wolff, who was celebrating another constructors' title following the Suzuka triumph, was confident Hamilton would recover.
"We had those little wobbles throughout the weekend, whether that affects him or not I don't know," Wolff told Sky Sports F1. "He must know he still has every chance to win the championship, there's four races to go. He will recover.
"33 points is quite a big gap if everything goes right. But we have seen that one DNF and the other guy winning is 25 points lost and then the championship is open again."
Don't miss The F1 Report's review of the Japanese GP on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday evening.
