Mercedes should allow F1 strategy risks, Hamilton says

Hamilton pleaded for a chance to try a divergent strategy as he closed on Rosberg in the second stint, but was only offered slight pit timing variations rather than the chance to two-stop or use different compounds.

RACE REPORT: Rosberg defeats Hamilton again to win Brazilian GP

He argued Mercedes' policy was not giving its drivers chance to battle each other during races.

"I am here to race and when you have the same strategy it's set from the beginning, so let's take a risk," said Hamilton.

"I had the pace but you can't overtake here. I was behind Nico attacking for some time but I killed my tyres.

"It's such a great track, but you can't get close enough unless you have a huge advantage on the guy in front.

"The DRS zone may not be long enough - that could have been the thing to make the difference.

"So I just wanted to see if there were any other [strategy] options.

"It will be great to sometimes be able to do something different rather 'you're in on lap 15 and you're in on lap 16'.

"Have some options and see how it plays out."

Rosberg responded that the fight would not be as fair if Mercedes allowed strategy variance.

"It's a discussion we've had many times," he said.

"It wouldn't be fair for the guy running second to go for another strategy and for it to turn out it was massively the better strategy.

"And you won the race just because of luck and the other strategy being so much quicker.

"That's the big problem with it. That's why it doesn't make sense.

"It should be me against Lewis, that's it and no luck, rather than one strategy being a bit better than the other."

The Mercedes drivers also disagreed on their race pace, with Rosberg disputing Hamilton's insistence that he was faster and being held up.

"I had the pace advantage over Lewis, so he wasn't going to come past me," said Rosberg.