Rule stops Hamilton from wearing green helmet

Mar.27 (GMM) Lewis Hamilton cannot wear a special helmet this weekend in Malaysia.

To celebrate title sponsor Petronas' home race, the reigning world champion and Mercedes both revealed Hamilton brought a special green helmet to Malaysia.

"How mega is this?!" the team captioned a photo on Twitter, while Hamilton also said on the social networking site: "I had a special helmet made to celebrate Petronas and Malaysia.

"Due to the FIA's new rule, I can't wear it."

Two weeks ago in Australia, Hamilton won with his predominantly white helmet.

The FIA regulations say in 2015: "In order for drivers to be easily distinguished from one another whilst they are on the track, the crash helmet of each driver must be presented in substantially the same livery at every event during a championship season."

So in his usual white, Hamilton's preparations in Malaysia got off to a bad start on Friday when he stopped in the first practice session with an engine problem.

The team confirmed it was a failure of the "inlet system", but said it "does not affect Lewis' power unit allocation for the season.

"Crew working hard to get him back out before the end of FP2," Mercedes added.