Lewis Hamilton promises no let up in 'intense' F1 2018

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport driver was involved in an opening lap incident when Scuderia Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen made contact with Hamilton at Village, causing the Brit to spin round and fall to last place.

Such were the problems Bottas was having on his tyres, Hamilton soon took second and Raikkonen third, all the while being untroubled by two scrapping Red Bulls in their rear view mirrors.

"I think what we've seen this season is a little bit of a different pattern".

A poor start when the lights went out allowed Vettel and fourth placed Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to sweep past by the first corner.

"I sweated my a*** off in that race".

Although he recovered to second place, it was a case of what could have been - and it was a case of Mercedes were not happy. If you can't understand and appreciate that then I fully understand.

But there was no doubting the comeback.

Hamilton rushed back into the mix for a podium spot with the majority of runners picking a one-stop strategy until Marcus Ericsson lost control of his Sauber at Turn 1, and his fierce shunt into the tyre barrier brought out a lap 33 safety vehicle.

"The first thing is that both drivers had the same call to do the opposite [to Ferrari]".

This time his team, who had messed up the strategy so badly just seven days before in Austria, got it right.

The Finn was unable to keep Vettel at bay as the four-time champ used his fresher tyres to sweep into the lead but Hamilton also overtook Bottas easily to take the chequered flag just a couple of seconds behind.

Hamilton said: "It was 100 percent the right decision for me with the safety vehicle. But I will come back fighting". It is just a constant learning of the tyre which is the single most important denominator of performance.

With Wolff highlighting Ferrari's starts as one of their strengths, he wants Mercedes to get off the line better in future rather than focus too much on the actions of other teams. "What an awesome day".