Bernie Ecclestone has personally urged Mercedes to let Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg race amid fears that the world champions will introduce team orders for this Sunday’s British Grand Prix in an effort to control their feuding drivers.

Since the acrimonious fallout from their last-lap crash in Spielberg on Sunday, Ecclestone has spoken to Toto Wolff, Mercedes head of motorsport, warning him that the public would take a dim view of the team shutting down the race between their drivers.

Formula One’s ringmaster, who sided with Hamilton’s view that banning racing would “rob” the 140,000 fans expected at Silverstone for race day, told Wolff that he should let his warring drivers continue to battle it out on track.