Lewis Hamilton received an apology from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff after yesterday’s race in Italy, with the Brit finishing in a lowly and miserable 13th place.

Team boss Wolff, who has won eight Constructors’ Championships within the sport, apologised over the team radio, which meant it was played to all fans watching the broadcast.

Wolff said: “Sorry for what you have needed to drive today, I know this is undriveable and not what we deserve to score as a result, so we’ll move from there, but this was a terrible race.”

Hamilton, who was famously overtaken on the final lap of the final race to lose the Drivers' Championship last season to Max Verstappen, has struggled to compile a string of decent results for the Brackley-based team.

Hamilton started strong with a third-place finish at the season opener in Bahrain, but struggled for pace in Saudi Arabia, with only a point collected for his 10th-place finish.

In Australia, the seven-time champion was able to guide the W13 to a fourth-place finish, with his teammate George Russell managing a podium spot.

[Credit: Sky Sports F1]

The race, held at the famous Imola racetrack in Italy, was full of drama, with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo crashing into Carlos Sainz at the Tamburello chicane on lap one, with the Ferrari man beaching himself and not being able to re-join the track.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was then found to be at fault for a pit-lane collision between himself and Hamilton and received a five-second penalty.

With 10 laps to go, Ferrari’s and the current championship leader Charles Leclerc lost control of the car whilst chasing Sergio Perez and fell from third place down to ninth, but eventually recovered for sixth place.

Verstappen would go on to eventually win the race, with the world champion being in a race of his own.

Red Bull also secured second place with Perez, and McLaren’s Lando Norris finished on the podium for the first time this season.