Hamilton slates 'joke' stewarding

Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable incident with Felipe Massa while the pair disputed 10th place.

He was then informed following the race that another incident - a collision with Pastor Maldonado's Williams - was being investigated.

"Out of six races, I've been to the stewards five times. It's a joke," Hamilton told the BBC. "It's an absolute frickin' joke."

When asked why he thought stewards had been paying attention to his driving this year, he joked: "Maybe it's because I'm black. That's what Ali G says. I don't know."

Hamilton said that he had not been to blame for the Massa incident, which occurred at the Loews hairpin on lap 34 as the two - and Mark Webber's Red Bull made contact.

"I was quite a lot quicker than Massa," he added. "I went up the inside, and the guy turned so early and just turned into me. So I tried to go over the kerb to avoid him and we were stuck together.

"And of course I get the penalty, which is usual. He [Massa] held me up in qualifying and I got the penalty. He turned into me, and I got the penalty."

He also denied that he was at fault for causing Maldonado to crash at Ste. Devote with three laps remaining in the race as the pair battled for sixth spot.

"I went up the inside of Maldonado and you can see on the [TV] screen that he turned in a good car length too early to stop me overtaking him and he crashed into me.

"It's just ridiculous. These drivers are absolutely frickin' ridiculous. Just stupid."

Hamilton's sixth place came after a frustrating weekend on which he had set the pace in the first two parts of qualifying, but then been caught out by McLaren's strategy in Q3 before he was dropped to ninth on the grid for missing the chicane on his best lap.

After being mired in the midfield for the whole race, he said that his determination to overtake rivals would not be dimmed by the events of the grand prix.

"It's not hurting my confidence as a driver. I just think the sport is... People want to see my racing, want to see overtaking and [then] you get done for trying to overtake. You get done trying to put on a show. You get done trying to make a move.

"Fair play, if I really feel that I've gone too late and hit someone, I'll put my hand up and realise [that] I really have caused an incident and I've been the stupid one, but it is not the case [today]."

Hamilton's result retained his second place in the championship, but dropped him to 58 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel, who won the race.