Hamilton out after crash with Button

Trying to feed his car round the outside of Button as they drove down the pit lane, Hamilton found himself squeezed against the wall and suffered damage to his car.

"I felt that I was at least half-way alongside him," said the 26-year-old. "Jenson made a mistake going into the final corner so I was able to get a better exit, and was coming down the outside of him. I don't know if he could see me or not, but he just kept moving across, and then I was in the wall."

Button was heard shouting, "What is he doing?" over the in-car radio system.

The collision left Hamilton's left rear tyre trailing the car, which the McLaren pit wall falsely interpreted as a broken suspension, according to Hamilton. Although he tried to crawl round the track to the pits, Hamilton said he was instructed to pull over.

"The team said I had a broken suspension and so I pulled over, but when I got out that wasn't the case", Hamilton told reporters. "It was only the tyre that was busted."

"I think there is such a thing as an accident," said McLaren's Jonathon Neal. "We're not the first team to have such an accident and I'm sure we won't be the last."

Hamilton had already collided with Red Bull driver Mark Webber, on the first corner after the cars were freed from behind the safety-car on lap 5.

"I went down the inside and he braked quite early," said Hamilton. "I was on the kerb and then I pushed over, and we just touched."

The torrential rain currently holding up the race only arrived after Hamilton's retirement, and he felt that conditions were still tolerable when he was forced to stop.

"It wasn't that bad - I had pretty good grip," he said. "It was drying up. Visibility wasn't the best."

Webber and Button, who do not appear to have suffered damage from their incidents with Hamilton, are currently 7th and 10th respectively. Inclement weather has seen the race suspended for the time being.