Hamilton, who began Sunday’s race from 13th on the grid, did gain a couple of places after the first lap collision between McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. But he dropped to 15th after his one and only pit stop, and found it virtually impossible to overtake, even after the race director activated DRS midway on a drying track.

On Saturday, Hamilton had hit out at those doubting his commitment to Mercedes, including former world champion Mika Hakkinen who said last week that the Briton was “sulking” and predicted that he might not see out his Mercedes contract, which runs until the end of next season.

Hamilton repeated on Sunday that he was still hungry and motivated to help the team bounce back. “I’ve definitely had lower moments, so it’s not the lowest,” he said. “But a weekend to forget, that’s for sure. I am out of the championship, there’s no question about that, but I will still keep working as hard as I can and try and somehow put it back together.”

Wolff said it was his job to protect his driver, adding they had to “stick together through the bad times”.

“In a way, I have to protect him,” the Austrian said. “It is not his low, it is the low of the car performance. We know he is a seven-time world champion. He caught up last year when he was behind. The guy is the best driver in the world and he does not have a machine and the equipment underneath him to execute.

Wolff added: “In a way, it is irrelevant if you come eighth, 12th, or 15th, it doesn’t matter. It is all bad. The real stars recovered. The great ones that come to my mind had certain moments where things didn’t run properly and that is the case now with Lewis, and we have to sort this out and stick together through the bad times, and today was certainly very bad.”