Hamilton: I would've done the same as Vettel

Vettel received a five-second penalty for rejoining the track unsafely and forcing a driver off the track after he went wide over the grass while running just ahead of Hamilton.

The penalty meant that the Mercedes driver just has to sit behind the Ferrari to the flag in order to guarantee the win.

"I watched the replays," said Hamilton. "It's obviously very close. What I can say is if I was in the lead and I made a mistake and went wide, I probably would have done the same thing.

"It happens so quick, and you're just trying to hold position. And when I say I'd do the same, I would have tried to squeeze him too.

"That's ultimately what happened today. So my opinion on that has not shifted. Regarding the rules, say you didn't have that rule, I would have kept it lit, and we would have crashed. One way or not it was going to go badly."

Asked about his radio comment at the time – when he told his engineer that Vettel had rejoined the track in a dangerous way – he said he stood by that opinion.

"Usually the first instinct is often the right one, I would say. When I watched the replay and had a look at my data I had to brake at the exit of Turn 4. There was a hazard there, and if I had not done that, we would have crashed. I don't feel any different about that.

"The thing is from a driver's point of view you know how it goes. It's different when you're watching as a viewer, but as a driver thing go wrong, and it's 'shoot,' you try and squeeze so that they don't lose position.

"It's a natural instinct that we have. You're not going to go, 'Actually I'm going to pull to the left and let them bloody go by.'

"He did block me, but unfortunately he went off track, and the way the rules are written, that's how it's prescribed."