NICO ROSBERG admitted to “regret” yesterday over his fracas with teammate Lewis Hamilton at the weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
After the race, Hamilton accused his Mercedes colleague of deliberately driving into him during the second lap, causing a race-wrecking punctured.
While the slow journey back to the pit hit Hamilton’s race enough that he retired later, Rosberg went on to take second place behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, giving him a 29-point lead over Hamilton.
Hamilton later claimed the German said his actions were intentional in a heated post-race meeting between himself, Rosberg, motorsport boss Toto Wolff, executive technical director Paddy Lowe and non-executive chairman Niki Lauda.
“I was gobsmacked when I was listening to the meeting,” said Hamilton.
“He just came in there and said it was all his fault, that he could have avoided it, but he didn’t want to.
“He basically said he did it on purpose. He said he did it on purpose, 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, Paddy and all those guys who are not happy with him as well.”
Rosberg said he “regretted that Lewis and myself touched.“I was quicker at the time and there was an opportunity, so I gave it a go around the outside as the inside was blocked.
“I didn’t see any risk in overtaking, or trying to overtake, so why should I not try?”
Wolff has indicated that some action may be taken against Rosberg by the team but some are also pushing for motorsport governing body FIA to take action.
Race stewards at the time judged that it was a “racing incident” so took no further action but the FIA could reopen the case.
A senior F1 official told the that had the body known of Rosberg’s remarks before the race was declared over, the stewards may have “hauled him up” to investigate.
If the FIA does now investigate it could decide to impose penalties on Rosberg including disqualification or a demotion at a future race.