Lewis Hamilton tweets for first time since Mercedes return confirmed

Lewis Hamilton has tweeted a selection of photos from Friday's shakedown run of the all-new Mercedes W13 in his first post on the platform since his return to Formula One was officially confirmed earlier this week. The 37-year-old was in attendance at Silverstone to put his new car through its paces after it was unveiled to the public at the German outfit's launch event at the circuit earlier in the day.

Hamilton's future on the grid appeared to be uncertain after he was cruelly denied a record-breaking eighth Drivers' Championship title at last year's decisive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Brit was left frustrated after Max Verstappen was bizarrely allowed to close up to him under the safety car late on before taking the lead on the final lap to clinch the end-of-season honours.

He was said to be weighing up the idea of a shock retirement before the FIA announced that Michael Masi would be replaced as F1's race director after an internal investigation into what happened earlier this month.

Hamilton's presence at Mercedes for the upcoming season was then confirmed when he attended Mercedes' launch event on Friday morning alongside new team-mate George Russell.

He took to Twitter on Saturday to share a series of stills from the shakedown test that followed alongside the caption: "New car, new teammate, new year, new drive."

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Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Hamilton will be able to pip Verstappen and Russell to this season's Drivers' Championship title by reaching a new level of excellence with Mercedes over the course of this year.

He suggested at Friday's launch that he never seriously considered the possibility of walking away from the