World champion Lewis Hamilton vehemently denied yesterday he had requested 'No. 1' driver status in the Mercedes team and claimed he and teammate Nico Rosberg are reunited "without any issues" in this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Asked if his new contract had not been agreed because of his request for No. 1 status, he said he had never in his career asked for any kind of preferential treatment.

"Never, never have I asked for that," he said. "I just want to beat my teammate out on the track and prove myself that way and not by my team-mate having his hands tied behind his back."

He said there was "no issue" about his partnership with Rosberg and no strain in their relationship despite the German's claims last weekend that he had been 'backed into' the clutches of third-placed German Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.

"It's something we spoke about after the race, I don't particularly want to go back into it, but obviously we heard the comments after the race and some people have spun those words in whichever way they wanted to spin them.

"Moving forwards, we are reunited as a team this week, and we'll try and do a great job. There is no issue between myself and Nico. We saw each other this morning and everything is good. There are going to be times when people are unhappy about things, we're grown-ups and we have moved past it."

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