It has been revealed courtesy of footage from the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul just over a week ago that Lewis Hamilton was informed by McLaren-Mercedes that his team-mate and title-winning successor Jenson Button would not attempt to pass him - shortly before his fellow Briton did ꦚjꦉust that.

Whilst the contentious coming-together between Red Bull Racing team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber understandably stole the lion's share of the headlines in Turkey, the wheel-to-wheel duel between Hamilton and Button in the♑ closing stages of the race could just as easily have ended in tears.

The duo rubbed wheels a💙s they tussled over the top spot - to the evident consternation of McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, with the general consensus within the squad be🦩ing that in response to RBR's salutary lesson, the battle for victory had been called off.

Both drivers had been instructed by the team to🦂 save fuel, but it has since transpired that whilst Hamilton was given a target lap time - one that the 25-year-old opined was in hindsight 'definitely a bit too slow' - Button was not, which might have been the catalyst for the subsequent 'miscommunication' that led to the pair briefly flirting with disaster.

Moreover, in a video released on the official F1 website, Hamilton can be heard telling hi♔s team over his pit-to-car radio that 'Jenson is closing in on me...if I back off is Jenson going to pass me or not?' to which he was told in no uncertain terms by his race engineer Andy Latham: "No, Lewis, no."

"It was tricky in those closing laps, because we knew we were pretty marginal on fuel, but tꦜhe team lets us race and that's exactly what we did," exp🌜lained Button.

Relations between Hamilton and Button appeared ⛎a little strained in the immediate aftermath of the race and up on the podium, with the fo🦄rmer overheard asking the latter what the move had all been about. Both have since summed it up as a simple racing incident.