James Allison joked that he was carrying a nose cone 'full of cocaine' after the Mercedes technical director was quizzed about a mysterious car part on his way out of the paddock.

During Ted Kravitz's iconic post-race 'notebook' segment on Sky Sports F1, the pit lane reporter stumbled across Allison on his way out of the paddock.

Mercedes' technical director was carrying a car part, wrapped in bubble wrap that didn't allow Kravitz a peek inside. "What happened to the nose cone?" he asked.

"I've got no idea," Allison laughed. "It's just part of the stuff we take to and fro." Kravitz then shuffled around to try and take a closer look, but the Mercedes chief moved away in response.

"Why aren't you letting me look in the nose cone?" Kravitz probed. Allison joked back: "Because I don't know what is in there... it might be all of our cocaine!"

Kravitz was taken aback by Allison's cheeky response, letting out a laugh before adding: "James! Do not say... such a naughty man, off you go. It's not that... he's just joking!"

Fortunately for Allison and Mercedes, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix offered plenty more for the Silver Arrows to cheer about as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished in P6 and P7 respectively.

While the result in itself was nothing to write home about, Toto Wolff will be delighted to leave Imola off the back of a consistent and relatively issue-free weekend.

"You can't see it on the result that we are making steps with where we want the car to be, Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "We are 30-plus seconds off the quickest guys and that's a lot P6 and P7 us nothing to be proud of

"You can hear the frustration in my voice but there is more to come and it's incremental, marginal gains we need to make. This is how the sport goes."