Formula One side, Mercedes, have rejected claims they engineered the mistake by Nico Rosberg that led to Lewis Hamilton winning the Italian Grand Prix.
It was Rosberg’s second error of the day at the same chicane as he had done similar on lap nine, but on that occasion without penalty.
With Hamilton breathing down his neck at the midway point, Rosberg seemed to crack under the pressure, forcing him to take the escape road.
That immediately prompted rumours Rosberg’s act was deliberate and ordered by Mercedes as payback for crashing into Hamilton early in the Belgian Grand Prix, an incident that cost the Briton dearly.
Former triple world champion, Sir Jackie Stewart also joined fans on social media in questioning the circumstance which allowed Hamilton come top after Rosberg deviated from chicane.
Rosberg and his Mercedes management both flatly dismissed the claims, and the majority of people in the paddock agreed it was extremely unlikely that Rosberg gave way deliberately.
The German driver was also quick to deny the claims. He said: ‘I just messed up. What would be the reason for me to do something like that deliberately? There is no possible reason.
“If you’re ordered by the team to do it then you would do it, but there is no reason why the team would ask me to change position, or something like that.
“The only thing in people’s minds could be Spa, but Spa was a mistake I’ve apologised for. It’s not like we are now starting to shuffle our cars.”
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff denied the suggestions of a deliberate mistake, saying that only a ”paranoid mind could come up with such an idea”
“You mean whether we told him to miss the braking, go through the chicane and let Lewis past?” he said.
“No. This is for the drivers’ world championship. He was under pressure and that was why it happened’.”
He, however, admitted that it was “unusual” and “bizarre” for a driver to make such a mistake twice in the same race .
Rosberg did it on lap nine as Hamilton was fighting to pass Williams’s Felipe Massa for second place and again on lap 29, the decisive incident.
“It’s not like other races we have seen from Nico,” Wolff said. “He rarely makes mistakes. Two today and in the same place.”
Wolff said the first incident may have been influenced by the fact that Rosberg had just moved his brake bias forwards to protect the rear brakes. That puts more emphasis on the front brakes, which may have caught Rosberg out.
And he would have chosen not to try to turn in because the drivers had been warned not to lock the tyres and risk ‘flat-spotting’ them – when one section is worn more than the rest of the tyre – because it would mean they had to make an extra pit stop.
“To be fair, we haven’t properly analysed it,” Wolff said. “We went forward with the brakes and that is the moment he locked up the first time and one of the main messages was don’t flat spot the tyres because if you do we need to pit you.”
