Lewis Hamilton was far from firing on all cylinders at Hockenheim having battled with an illness all weekend, Mercedes say.

It was already known the Briton was under the weather having revealed Esteban Ocon had been put on standby to step in on Saturday morning.

Hamilton persevered, however, although it wouldn't be rewarded as a mistake while leading snowballed into what would be a fortunate ninth place after penalties for both Alfa Romeo's.

“No I think he was not healthy, he wasn’t healthy the whole weekend," team boss Toto Wolff told Crash.net. “But I think he did the most he could to get himself in an okay place for the race.

“Many of us wouldn’t have considered being in a race car but he did and he did feel better today but he can’t be physically in your best game when you’ve been ill for a few days.

“Having said that he tried to push through and that needs to be admired.”

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As for Hamilton, he admitted the rain may have helped him as the usual physical challenge of Hockenheim's high-speed corners was gone but he did need some to recuperate.

“When it’s a wet race it’s more mentally challenging and this weekend has just been more physically and mentally challenging for me,” he explained.

“I’m only human. I’ve cancelled everything I have for the next few days so I’m going home probably just to sleep the next few days and try and get over this bug.

“It’s not really improving massively but hopefully over the next couple of days, it will. I don’t think being in the car is any good.

“Just health is so important so I’ll just try and make sure I’m as healthy as I can be for the next race.”