Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the title battle between his drivers is "far from over" despite Nico Rosberg taking a 33-point lead over Lewis Hamilton with victory at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Rosberg has outscored his teammate by 52 points since the summer break while Hamilton has had to contend with a grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix and an engine failure in Malaysia. Such is Rosberg's current lead in the title race, that he can afford to finish second to Hamilton at all four of the remaining races and still be crowned champion at the final round in Abu Dhabi.
"Thirty-three points is a lot," Wolff said. "But you can see in Malaysia how quickly it can change. You're in the lead and the other guy wins and all of a sudden it's 25 points lost and then it's down to eight.
"This is still a mechanical sport and the way Nico attacks the championship by looking at each weekend as a single event has proven to be the right strategy for him, but equally Lewis functions best when he is under pressure and when he has a target. I have no doubt that this will be an intense fight until the end. That is far from over.
"There are four weekends to go, Lewis is going to regroup, we've seen it before. Remember when Nico won eight races in a row and then Lewis had that winning streak? He's very strong and he needs the enemy -- sometimes more than one -- and that's how he functions. Again, I think it's going to go down to the end."
Hamilton arrived at the Japanese Grand Prix in the media spotlight after he came to Suzuka just one week after his engine failure in Malaysia. In the absence of a standout quote in his Thursday press conference, much of the media focused on the amount of time he spent using the Snapchat app on his phone during the session.
Hamilton felt some of the media reaction had been disrespectful and on Saturday night told the written press he was not willing to answer their questions before wishing them a good weekend and walking out of his usual press conference.
Asked whether the events of the weekend may have affected Hamilton's concentration on track and led to his poor start, Wolff said: "Lewis in Malaysia he was really on a roll, dominating the weekend then obviously we let him down with an engine failure, and that was an easy one for him to bring home.
"During the week he was OK, then all of these things around the press conferences, yesterday -- whether it affects him or not, I don't think so, because it is just not his priority I guess. I wouldn't put it down to that that his start didn't go well ... because the racing was great after that, how he recovered was really exceptional."
Hamilton shared a private jet home with Wolff and Mercedes' chairman Niki Lauda, but speaking before their departure Wolff said he had no plans to address the events of the weekend with his driver.
"I think just after the race is not the right moment to really put the finger where it hurts we need to calm down and find out what happened, regroup, and my learning from the last couple of years is that 24 hours later things look completely different than they appear an hour after the race.
"So our main emphasis will be building him up and just enjoying the ride home. We have 10 days it's not such a rush like last week, and he's going to come back strong in Austin."