Lewis Hamilton insisted his Mercedes team were trying to ‘kill him’ after a tactical tweak went wrong.

The 39-year-old had finished third in qualifying but slumped to a disappointing sixth on Sunday and he took his frustrations out on his team.

Mercedes decided to go aggressive with their tyre selection – starting on soft compound while many others went with mediums.

It nearly paid off when Hamilton came close to overtaking Max Verstappen in second at the start of the race.

But the Red Bull star held him off comfortably on Turn One to stay in his position – one that he would maintain after Lando Norris won the race.

As the seven-time world champion dropped back, Mercedes decided to put the hard tyres on in a pitstop on lap 18.

Hamilton was not happy with the decision, though, insisting that they had gone too early.

“Something’s definitely wrong with the car mate,” he said on the team radio.

“Tyres are dropping off.”

As team-mate George Russell pushed further ahead of Hamilton, the Briton said: “You’re killing me with this offset, mate.”

Hamilton had been fifth at the time while Oscar Piastri eventually took over, with the Ferrari star opting to use the medium tyres.

Piastri’s team-mate Norris went on to win the race and close the gap on Verstappen to 52 at the top.

“It was an amazing race,” the 24-year-old said.

“A few too many close calls – I had a couple of little moments in the middle – but it was well controlled, I think, otherwise.

“The car was mega. I could push, we were flying the whole race, and at the end could just chill. So it was a nice race, still tough, I’m a bit out of breath, but a fun one.”

“I didn’t hit anything. It was a bit close with George at Turn One but once I got into third I had a massive gap to try to close up.

“I didn’t want to take too many risks.”