Mercedes will not hold contract talks with Hamilton this season

Mercedes will not hold talks with Lewis Hamilton over a contract extension this season. The Briton's contract expires at the end of 2018 and rumours started at the Belgian Grand Prix that he had entered negotiations over a new deal.

However, team boss Toto Wolff has revealed that no such talks have taken place and that they are unlikely to this season. Hamilton's rival Sebastian Vettel recently signed a three-year extension with Ferrari, but Hamilton will not follow suit so quickly.

"Between Mercedes and Lewis there is a very good relationship," Wolff said. "But we are not going to start talking about such topics now or at all before the end of the season. We have eight more difficult races ahead of us, so it's going to be a very intense period where it is not appropriate to have such discussions."

Hamilton perfected his weekend at Spa, claiming pole position on Saturday before going on to convert it into a race win. Speaking of Hamilton's weekend, Wolff commented that it was a fantastic drive from the triple world champion.

"That was a fantastic drive from Lewis to finish off a perfect weekend from him," he said. "It was a great result for the championship and a faultless performance. He defended well on the opening lap then it was a battle lap by lap to stretch out the gap to Sebastian. After the pit stop, we saw a small blister on one of his rear tyres and we had some question marks about whether they would last to the finish.

"Then the Safety Car came out and made the decision easier for us. We had a discussion about which tyres to fit - we didn't have a new set of UltraSoft remaining, and the team on the pit wall knew that the Soft would be the better tyre over the stint - if we could defend in those first laps after the restart. As Lewis showed, it was the right decision, and he delivered a great win"

Fergal Walsh