Mercedes says Hamilton did not ask for wet tyres at pit-stop

Hamilton was in the commanding lead in the early stages of the race, but his team decided to switch him to slicks when he believed it was "still wet" and as more rain fell, the five-time world champion couldn't keep control of his car and crashed, damaging his front wing.

Mercedes trackside operations director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that the team were discussing the type of slick tyre to put on Hamilton's car and not talking about the two types of wet weather tyres.

"The conversation we were having with him was actually about the medium," Shovlin said. "We thought it was going to get drier, that's what we were reading into the weather forecast and the medium was the only tyre we were comfortable taking to the end.

"Lewis was actually saying that the tyre is too hard, and that was why we put him on the soft tyre. We know now that we should've been having the conversation about going to the intermediate tyre but at the time what we were discussing with Lewis was just medium or soft."