Lewis Hamilton: 'Poor starts could cost title'

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he is worried poor starts could cost him the 2016 world championship.

The Briton has had several poor race starts in 2016, most recently at Monza where he was slow off the line from pole and teammate Nico Rosberg closed the points gap to just two.

"If you gauge my season, then the championship could be lost through starts," Hamilton admitted in Singapore.

"Considering I have had a lot of pole positions, I have lost the race from the starts."

Mercedes sources insisted after Monza that it was not actual technical trouble that cost Hamilton, but simply the difficulty of the recent clampdown on clutches.

"Would I prefer my clutch not to have inconsistencies? For sure, but that is not going to change anytime soon," said Hamilton.

Finally, indicating the current level of tension between title rivals Hamilton and Rosberg, the British driver refused to congratulate his teammate for hitting the milestone of 200 grands prix this weekend.

Asked if he had anything nice to say about Rosberg's achievement, Hamilton answered: "Not really, no."