Lewis Hamilton unleashed a storm on Sunday afternoon after the Belgian Grand Prix and claimed that Nico Rosberg ran into him on purpose on the second lap of the race to “prove a point”.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff was left fuming after the race and when asked by Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz what he though about Rosberg’s driving he only had two words to say: “Unacceptable race”.
“This is an absolutely unacceptable race for us. It lead to two of our drivers crashing into each other… Unbelievable!” he added.
Hamilton was interviewed after his team debrief and he revealed that Rosberg ran into him to prove a point.
“We just had a meeting about it and he basically said he did it on purpose,” said Hamilton. He said he could have avoided it. He said ‘I did it to prove a point’. He basically said I did it to prove a point.”
“And you don’t have to just rely on me. Go and ask Toto [Wolff] and Paddy [Lowe] who are not happy with him as well.”
Hamilton felt that he was the innocent in the matter as he felt he left enough room for Rosberg and used Sebastian Vettel’s attempted pass on Rosberg at the start of the race as an example. “Look at Sebastian [Vettel]. He was actually further up [in a lap one move] and he knew he wasn’t going to go out the other side. He was sensible about it,” said Hamilton.
Mercedes Executive Director, Toto Wolff, clarified the matter later in the evening. Wolff said that Rosberg suggested he has not backed down from the move, rather than admitting to deliberately hitting his team mate.
Talking to AutoSport, Wolff had this to say: “Nico felt he needed to hold his line. He needed to make a point, and for Lewis, it was clearly not him who needed to be aware of Nico. [Rosberg] didn’t give in. He thought it was for Lewis to leave him space, and that Lewis didn’t leave him space.”
Both drivers agreed to disagree in the debrief. Wolff also added that Nico’s anger towards Hamilton had not subsided.
This does not mean that the situation between the two has been diffused. There will be some serious discussions between the drivers and the team management. We could see Mercedes implement team orders after this incident. But to what extent these team orders will be implemented is the question.
