Mercedes have revealed that both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton suffered a similar problem during the race which severely limited their power, as a result of a switch being in the incorrect position.
Whilst the problem caused Rosberg little inconvenience as he went on to win the race, Hamilton was delayed for several laps, costing him the region of a second per lap, as he struggled to resolve the problem without help from his team who, under new rules, were unable to advice him.
"We had a problem on both cars with the configuration of some switches," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained after the race.
"Lewis’s problem came a bit earlier, Nico’s a couple of laps later. There was a way of changing the switches on the dashboard which of course by regulations we are not allowed to communicate to the drivers.
"This caused a bit of confusion and it took a while on Lewis’s car to reset," he explained.
It was later revealed that Hamilton's switch was out of place before the race had even begun, whilst Rosberg was able to correct the problem far quicker, as he initiated the problem himself.
"Nico was in a little bit more of a fortunate situation as he had done a switch change before and he just changed it back basically a couple of laps later.
"Lewis was trying to figure out what it was and it took 12 laps. And then the power came back, but obviously it was too late."
