Lewis Hamilton has dismissed the ongoing controversy about his wearing a nose stud in his Formula 1 car as “all a bit silly” after the issue blew up again at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team were fined €25,000 (£22,000) after qualifying for a procedural error in incorrectly filing out a scrutineering form saying Hamilton would comply with the regulations not to wear jewellery, only for him to do so.

Hamilton said when the issue first emerged at the start of the season that he felt singled out by governing body the FIA over the issue, as he is the only driver to wear significant amounts of piercings.

But he said on Saturday that he was “not trying to make a statement” and explained that he was wearing the stud again on the advice of doctors after suffering medical problems.

“I’ve had my jewellery and my nose stud for years and obviously we had that whole commotion at the beginning of the year,” Hamilton said.

“At the time it was, like, soldered in, so it didn’t come loose. They gave me, at the time for many races, an exemption so I could find a solution.

“Then I went to get it taken out and tried to find a solution, putting it in and out. It got infected because of that and I was just continuing on with this infection. I got a blood blister and had quite a sore on my nose. Then I went back [to the doctor]…

“This is all stuff I told them before qualifying. I went back and had to have the blood blister fixed, because there was pus and blood. I put this back in and in the last two weeks it’s started to heal and they’ve asked that I keep it in.

“It’s crazy that we’re having to talk about something so small. I take everything else out. At this point, I don’t really care to be honest.”

Hamilton, sounding exasperated by the issue, said he had “tried my best” and pointed out what he saw as an inconsistency in the FIA’s strict approach on the matter, which has emerged this season after years of jewellery being tolerated in the car despite it being against the rules for nearly 20 years.

“One of the best excuses I was given a long time ago was about heat and if you are in a fire metal conducts heat.

“But our suits are covered, our zip is metal, our buckle around our helmet is metal, we’ve got the wires with aluminium metal in them.

“So I don’t know. It’s all a bit silly. Hopefully they’ll be sensible. The stewards should be there to keep us safe most importantly but this is not a safety issue.”