London: Formula One pacesetter Nico Rosberg has denied admitting that he deliberately crashed into Lewis Hamilton after an incident, which sent relations between the warring teammates to a new low.
In his video blog, Rosberg disputed Hamilton’s interpretation of his comments on the crash, which punctured the Briton’s tyre and eventually ended his Belgian Grand Prix.
“I’ve been told what Lewis said in the press and the way he has stated his version of the events,” Rosberg said in the blog, filmed in Hamburg.
“All I can say is that my view of the events are very different.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has threatened punishment of Rosberg but also backed the German driver’s insistence that he did not deliberately cause the collision on lap two.
Hamilton said Rosberg told him he caused the crash “to prove a point”, and added that he was now not sure whether he could trust his teammate.
Rosberg finished the race second behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, opening up a 29-point championship lead over Hamilton, who retired with four laps to go.
The 29-year-old German, who was booed by some fans on the podium, said it was “definitely one of the more difficult video blogs today, the Spa race”.
He said he preferred to keep further comments within the team but suggested he would support the use of team orders, when drivers are told whether to overtake or stay back.
“As when such things occur, we must sit down and review them. That’s what we did,” Rosberg said.
“Everybody gave his opinion and we now we need to move forward there will be another discussion for sure because we need to see if we will change our approach in the future, as we did in Hungary. We will do that.”
At the previous race in Hungary, Mercedes followed a team-orders policy but they were forced into a rethink after Hamilton ignored instructions to let Rosberg overtake.
The German team have led the way this season but they have also become increasingly troubled by the growing rift between their two drivers.
Meanwhile, Hamilton revealed on Monday that he may not be able to trust his Mercedes teammate Rosberg in their future on-track duels for the drivers’ world title.
“Well, when you’re out there you have to trust the people to think with their heads and don’t do things deliberately,” said Hamilton.
“I don’t really know how to approach the next race, but all I know is that I’ve got to push, I’ve got a long way to come back from it.
“What was great this weekend is the support that I’ve had from the fans.
“On the parade lap, when we went round, so many British flags were here, caps and team tops. I’m gutted that I wasn’t able to get a result for them this weekend.”
Hamilton and Rosberg have been involved in a series of incidents this season, but none raised the stakes as high, or so dramatically, as Rosberg’s decision to hold his line and allow his front wing to clip Hamilton’s left rear tyre.
Hamilton added: “I can’t imagine what the team would do now. We came in to this weekend with a really positive mindset — I really was excited.
“We had eight races [to go] and we’re close — there’s only 11 points in it — and I thought it was going to be good for all of us. Good racing… I thought this was going to be a track that was going to be exciting.
“It’s interesting because we had that meeting on Thursday and Nico expressed how angry he was [about the Hungarian Grand Prix where Hamilton ignored a team request to allow him to pass].
“I was thinking ‘It’s been three weeks and you’ve been lingering?!’
“He expressed how angry he was and he literally sat there and said how angry he was at Toto and Paddy.
“But I thought we should be good after that... And then this result? It’s interesting...”
Hamilton was clearly pointing to the connection between Rosberg’s smouldering mood and his aggressive misjudgement in Sunday’s race when he could have lifted and steered his car out of danger.
Instead, Rosberg chose to keep his speed and his line and the team, as well as both drivers, paid the consequences.
Aggrieved and angry, the Mercedes bosses made clear they will reflect on the disgrace and chaos they experienced at seeing their two title contenders collide on only the second lap before making any decisions.
