MERCEDES have apologised to Lewis Hamilton for a strategic blunder that led to his final lap collision with Alex Albon.

Hamilton punted the Red Bull man off the track in an error that saw him hit with a five-second time penalty from the race stewards and dumped down to seventh place.

But Merc's technical chief James Allison said it was the team's fault for putting him behind Albon and Pierre Gasly in the first place after calling him in for an unnecessary pitstop when the safety car was deployed late in the race.

Allisson said: "Having not had the shiniest of races to that point, we then just did something plain dumb, which was – we thought we were exchanging a place for fresh rubber with enough laps left to get that place back properly and then have a go for the lead.

"That was just factually incorrect because we were exchanging two places, we hadn't factored Gasly, and secondly with the amount of debris on the track, there was just a lot more laps taken up by the safety car than we'd anticipated.

"[It was a] rookie error of a not quite quick enough car on the day and trying to stretch too far for victory.  It wasn't on, we just made a mistake.

"From the moment that we made the call it was like a heart-sink moment after he emerged from the pit behind Gasly and then we just were thinking: 'Why do we do that?'"

Hamilton accepted responsibility for the incident with Albon that saw the British-born Thai driver finish in 14th spot.

The six-time world champion said: "I fully accept the responsibility. I was coming from behind and I touched him.

“There looked like there could be an opportunity but it did not work out and I apologised to Alex and put my hands up.

“I gave it a shot. In my mind, I was trying to catch Max. I have got a penalty and I totally accept it.

“It was not my intention and you hardly see me collide into people. In hindsight I could have waited.”

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