Lewis Hamilton shouldn't have approached the FIA's Charlie Whiting directly over team-mate Nico Rosberg's yellow flag incident in Hungary, according to technical boss Paddy Lowe.
Lowe insists Hamilton should have addressed his concerns to the team, and then they could have relayed them to Whiting.
In Hungary Rosberg set his pole lap whilst passing through a double-waved yellow flag zone following Fernando Alonso's spin. The matter was investigated by the stewards, but they chose not to take action as data proved Rosberg had lifted off the throttle and slowed.
Hamilton, who believes a driver should slow considerably when passing an incident, went and spoke to Whiting to address his concerns without permission from his Mercedes team to do so.
Lowe called that "regrettable" and a "misjudgement" on Hamilton's behalf, insisting the Briton should go through his team.
"It’s my understanding that Lewis did go and see Charlie but it wasn’t in any way to seek a review of Nico’s lap – it was for his own understanding of what should be done in the future, how that should work for him in the future," explained Lowe.
"I think that was regrettable. Personally, he should have kept to advice from the team and we can obtain that from Charlie as necessary.
"But I don’t think there was any harm done. It was just a misjudgement from that point of view."
