Lewis Hamilton crashes in Madrid before ignoring Ferrari instruction to stop car

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton crashed out of final practice (David Davies/PA)

Lewis Hamilton crashed out of final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.

The seven-time world champion lost control of his Ferrari under braking for the final corner and hit the barriers.

Hamilton was able to reverse out of the tyre wall and attempted to complete a full lap back to the pits, ignoring multiple instructions from his team to park his broken car.

“Stop the car,” said Hamilton’s race engineer Carlo Santi. “Car is going,” Hamilton replied, with his damaged front wing lodged under the front-right of his machine.

Santi was back on the radio again. “Stop in the safest place possible,” he said.

Hamilton replied: “If I can make it back I will and if I can’t I will stop safely.”

Sanit said: “We have a puncture on the front. Stop the car.”

“I can see that,” said Hamilton in response as he continued against his team’s wishes in attempting to get back to his garage.

After completing two thirds of the lap, Hamilton eventually pulled over to the side of the track. Hamilton emerged from his car which was taken back to the pits on a flat-bed truck.

Hamilton was on course to set the quickest lap of the session so far prior to his accident.

Qualifying for Sunday’s inaugural race at the Madring takes place at 16:00 local time (15:00 BST).