Dennis cool on Hamilton shunt

Hamilton lost almost half of the morning's session when a bearer in the starter motor failed. A part of the bearing became jammed in the rear of the car, requiring the team to remove the floor to fix the problem, and costing Hamilton valuable running time.

"That sort of put him in the situation where he had not tried the option tyre this morning," Dennis said.

"I think it was in the back of his mind that he had two sets of options to try, and he just got a little bit enthusiastic, entered the corner a little bit quicker than on his first lap on that tyre, and had a bit of a moment."

The crash put Hamilton out of action for the final 30 minutes of the session, but Dennis said that after the start to the season that his young charge has enjoyed, a slight mis-step was forgivable.

"I'd rather not have a wrecked racing car, but under the circumstances we're pretty comfortable with his contribution," he added. "He's got a few brownie points still in hand."