Lauda: I have never heard such nonsense

Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda has laughed off claims by Red Bull's Helmut Marko that pressure by his team on Lewis Hamilton was what led to the engine expiring while the Formula 1 world champion led the Malaysian Grand Prix comfortably.

Marko told the official F1 website, “We clearly had the upper hand! My guess is that we very likely forced [Mercedes] into that engine failure!”

“We permanently put pressure on him, challenging his lead, as he knew he had to create a gap – and to go permanently full throttle was probably not the best thing for his engine,” gloated Marko.

Lauda scoffed at the idea,, "I have never heard such nonsense. I do always admire Helmut's optimism. I think he always tries to find reasons why he would have won."

Before the engine failure Hamilton was leading Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen by a comfortable margin and was in control of the race at Sepang, nevertheless the Red Bull pair finished first and second thanks to the Mercedes driver's mishap.

Hamilton's engine failure dropped him to 23 points behind his Mercedes teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg in the standing.