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Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes should be braced to suffer more tough Formula 1 weekends in the future following its surprise difficulties at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The world champion team was off the pace at the Marina Bay circuit, with Hamilton and Nico Rosberg qualifying on the third row of the grid as Ferrari and Red Bull led the way in qualifying and then fought for victory in the race.

While Hamilton expects things to "go back to normal" in this weekend's Japanese GP, he has accepted there are likely to be more difficult weekends to come for Mercedes.

GARY ANDERSON: Did tyre rules catch Mercedes out?

"I'm not going to sit here thinking it was a fluke or anything like that," said the reigning F1 champion.

"I'm sure there are going to be more situations like that, whether it's this year, next year or the year after, but I'm hopeful we can bounce back from that and it will never happen again.

"As to what happened in Singapore, it was specific to Singapore so we should go back to normal."

Hamilton added Mercedes has been hard at work trying to understand the problem, which was believed to be a result of the team struggling to find the sweet spot of the super-soft tyres on the slow street track.

"They [the engineers] have come up with a lot of solutions, a lot of reasons for it being the way it was," he said.

"The majority of them believe one of the reasons is that it was down to a domino effect, and although they're confident it was understood, they will still continue to look for answers."

Rosberg said Mercedes was lacking in "many, many areas" last weekend.

"Singapore was our big weakness last year also," said the German, who finished fourth.

"But we are still the same team that has won so many races, still the same car, same drivers, so the confidence is there.

"It didn't feel that much worse - if I didn't have the time [displayed in the car], I would have thought I was on pole with my lap."

WHAT MERCEDES' RIVALS THINK

Sebastian Vettel: "You have to remain realistic. In a way it was a big surprise to see Mercedes struggling, which I don't expect to be the case again here. Again it would be a big surprise."

Daniel Ricciardo: "Singapore is unique - it wasn't really characteristic of them. I'm sure there are theories going around, but I'm not going to get sucked into that.

"For one reason or another they didn't just get on top of it, and although it was nice for us for a change, I expect them to be back."

Kimi Raikkonen: "You wouldn't expect Mercedes to be struggling like they did in the last race.

"It's not been the case all year. I expect them to be more like they have been up until the last weekend."