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SINGAPORE - Formula 1 leader Nico Rosberg suffered a major blow to his chances of a first Drivers' championship when he retired from the 2014 Singapore GP with electronics problems after only 14 disappointing laps.
Rosberg, who qualified in second place for Mercedes, had already been forced to start from the pit lane after repeated issues with his car's steering wheel. Rosberg said: "We need to improve the car - it must be 100% reliable."
In the end, his retirement was utterly catastrophic for his 22-point cushion against arch-rival Lewis Hamilton - who won the race. Hamilton now leads the championship by 3 points with just five races to go.
'IT WAS A HORRIBLE FEELING'
Rosberg told Sky Sports television: "It was a horrible feeling really, to see everybody go. Because then I knew it was over."
"Then the whole steering wheel just wasn't working so I didn't have any hybrid power and the shiftingI would shift two gears at once all the time and I had no DRS.
"The car just wasn't working at all. And then there was no point to continue. It was a tough day really."
The retirement left Rosberg's team mate Lewis Hamilton on course to take the championship lead, with the Briton leading the field from pole position at the floodlit Marina bay street circuit.
Rosberg started the night race with a 22 point lead over Hamilton with six grands prix, including Singapore, remaining but his problems were evident before the start as mechanics worked feverishly on his car.
He failed to make any impression from the back of the grid and came in slowly to pit and change the steering wheel yet again.
Rosberg pressed a number of buttons on the new wheel after a lengthy stop but waved his hands to indicate his race was over after getting no response from the car.
RELIABILITY A 'WEAKNESS'
Rosberg said: "I'm still disappointed with today because it's the reliability again.
"It's the weakness we have in the team and we need to improve that, to get to the bottom of all these things and then try and understand what happened today and move on and full attack for (the Japanese Grand Prix at) Suzuka.
Until Sunday Rosberg had suffered less mechanical misfortune than Hamilton, who has won six races to his team mate's four but suffered three retirements.