Hamilton suffered cooling issue in Montreal

Mercedes have revealed that the supposed engine problem that affected Lewis Hamilton in Canada was actually a cooling issue.

Hamilton lost the lead of the World Championship to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after only managing fifth place compared to Vettel’s dominant victory.

It was Hamilton’s worst race result of the season and the Brit told the media after the race that he had an engine problem, although we now know that to be false.

Chief strategist James Vowles said in Mercedes’ Pure Pit Wall video: “What happened with Lewis was an entirely unrelated chassis cooling event, nothing to do with the engine itself.

“We had on the chassis side a cooling issue that appeared very, very early on in the race, it appeared during the safety car.”

Vowles praised Hamilton for his ability to nurse the car to the finish: "Lewis did a good job, and we were able to get somewhere reasonable in the first stint of the race, but we were still too warm.

"We tried a number of counter measures, both through switch changes that Lewis was able to complete for us, and through driving style.

"Lewis was really adapting to the situation as best he could, to stabilise and keep the temperatures under control."