The Chinese Grand Prix appears to have re-ignited the war between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with the latter accusing the race winner of using questionable tactics to compromise his race.
Shortly after the podium ceremony Rosberg went on the offensive, claiming, "[Hamilton] compromised my race massively at the time because the best possible race for Lewis was to back me off into Vettel so that Vettel would try to undercut me with an early pit stop."
"Then I would have to cover him and then I would have such a long stint at the end of the race that I would be without a chance. That was very frustrating that Lewis was taking at easy as that on the tyres at the beginning of the stint," lamented Rosberg.
The German was referring to Hamilton's pace shortly after the first stops, at which point he was asked by his race engineer to up his pace with Rosberg a couple of seconds adrift and being chased hard by third placed Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. At this point less than four seconds separated the top four, with Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.
Hamilton obeyed the pit wall call to up his speed, when it appeared he was in tyre and fuel conservation status while Rosberg was in full gas mode. Hence Rosberg's accusation that Hamilton was deliberately backing him up into the Vettel and Raikkonen.
But after the race Hamilton adamantly denied the accusation, "It is absolutely not the case. I wasn't really looking in my mirrors and I wasn't trying to back Nico up to Sebastian."
"If he wanted to get close and overtake he could have done. He was always about four or five seconds behind. He never got close so I don't know what his problem is. I did what they asked me to do. There shouldn't be too much aggro," explained the double world champion.
Rosberg added, "Interestingly, he said he was just thinking about himself and that says it all. What upsets me is that my race was massively compromised and we went through that scenario before the race"
"It was always very close with Sebastian Vettel coming out of the pits and that was completely unnecessary risk to put me in because we had a pace advantage over him."
"But we were taking it so easy in that stage of the race that he (Vettel) was right behind me, putting me under pressure and went to try to get me in the pit stops.
"It didn't compromise the team result but put unnecessary risk to the one-two and we went through that scenario before the race, which is frustrating. We'll have a discussion and see how it goes. I'll let you know," promised Rosberg.
The two drivers who have competed against each other since their teens in karting, and prior to last year were good friends, drifted apart last year as they went head-to-head for the world championship title.
The biggest flash-point coming during the Belgian Grand Prix where Rosberg tagged Hamilton and with it sparked the animosity that has simmered ever since, with Rosberg vilified at the time for his role in the incident.
Many paddock insiders feel that a dollop of internal strife is perhaps exactly what is needed to derail the Silver Arrows juggernaut, and that it comes so early in the season will have rivals rubbing their hands in anticipation, because that at this point Mercedes' worst enemy is themselves.
It would be interesting and highly entertaining to be a fly-on-the-wall at the Mercedes post-Shanghai team debrief. Watch this space...
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