Lewis Hamilton's retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix was due to the failure of a metal clamp between the intercooler and plenum that resulted in a loss of turbo boost pressure.
Hamilton retired on lap 32 after reporting a lack of power several laps earlier. Suspecting a throttle problem, Mercedes tried several setting changes during the race to rectify the issue but only discovered the real reason once the car had returned to the garage.
"We had a very minor bit - a metal clamp - that broke and had a massive effect," team boss Toto Wolff said. "The clamp was holding the plenum together and when it jumped off it caused boost leak.
"It was a freak thing. We have run the design for a long time and it was a typical metal clamp and it just broke."
Wolff said the failure would not prevent Hamilton using the engines at future rounds and therefore will not impact on his engine allocation for the remaining six races.