Lewis Hamilton endured a difficult race in Azerbaijan, having started from the pitlane as Mercedes fitted him with a new power unit.

Hamilton started the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pitlane as Mercedes opted to give him a fresh power unit after the seven-time F1 World Champion had qualified in seventh, two positions behind George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton’s ‘horror race’ explained

Hamilton looked set to finish outside of the points in Baku, circulating in 11th place as the final laps played out. But the big crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz promoted Hamilton to ninth, securing him a small bundle of points with which to leave Azerbaijan.

Team boss Toto Wolff took to team radio afterward to tell Hamilton: “Lewis, good to make it to the end, that was a horror race.

“I can so relate to it, we can all relate to it. At least we have taken the penalty now. Let’s move forward, look forward.”

Hamilton didn’t respond to Wolff’s radio call, with race engineer Pete Bonnington telling his driver “Well done” as Hamilton returned to the pits.

Mercedes had opted to fit Hamilton with a new power unit in Azerbaijan as the British driver had suffered an engine failure in Australia earlier this season – meaning he was going to have to serve a penalty at one of the final races.

Explaining why Hamilton’s seventh-place grid slot had resulted in Mercedes making the decision to fit a new power unit and trigger the penalty, Wolff said: “I think there are two difficult philosophies and we discussed it at length.

“One is that you just swallow the pill here because, starting from P7, we don’t know where that would have gone, and then doing it in Austin.

“But we feel that Austin is an opportunity so that was the decision. Right or wrong, I don’t know, but it was a close call.”

Speaking to media after the race, Wolff said: “We knew it was going to be a race of misery because it’s so difficult to overtake in Baku, and that’s what it was.

“The moment you come close you overheat the tyres and then you go backwards, so that’s what happened to him.”

Lewis Hamilton: ‘You see how I’m having to drive this thing?’

During the difficult race, Hamilton had radioed in to ask Bonnington whether he could “see how I’m having to drive this thing?” suggesting there was something unusual about the handling of the W15.

Asked about his comment after the race, Hamilton revealed a component on his car hadn’t been “correctly built”, which was discovered after qualifying on Saturday evening, and contributed to the team also making suspension changes alongside his power unit change.

“It was the worst balance I’ve probably ever had – one of the worst balances,” he said.

“Basically, I had so much front end but no rears.

“It’s not the way you drive. I had to yank the steering to break the traction from the front, and slide the front through every corner. It’s the weirdest way I had to drive.

“I knew that I wouldn’t be able to overtake. It’s difficult to follow in the middle, at least be close at the end. I don’t know why our pace was so bad on our side. It happens.”

Hamilton confirmed that it had been the “team’s decision” to change his power unit ahead of the race, explaining that he had been told it was the “best place, they said at least, to make the change.”