"l was very surprised that Lewis turned in and that caused a collision," says Nico; 10-second penalty does not affect result
Wednesday 13 July 2016 16:19, UK
Nico Rosberg has continued to plead his innocence despite being found guilty by Austrian GP race stewards of causing his crash with Lewis Hamilton.
After the Spielberg stewards ruled that the Mercedes driver had failed to leave his team-mate 'racing room', Rosberg was given a retrospective 10-second penalty - a punishment which did not affect the race result or reduce the German's 11-point lead of the championship.
But an unhappy Rosberg said in a Facebook video: "They gave me the blame, which sucks. I respect that, but I am of a different opinion. But that doesn't help."
Rosberg was leading the race when the incident occurred on the second corner of the final lap as he strived to fend off his Mercedes team-mate.
"I defended the inside and felt in a strong position, I was convinced that I would make it stick. I went deep because that was the best way at the time to try and defend my corner, to keep him on the outside," he said.
"Of course I need to leave him room on the track, which I was doing, and then Lewis completely caught me by surprise and turned in.
"He said in an interview that I was in his blind spot so he couldn't see where I was, so maybe that might be the reason, but it just completely caught me by surprise that he turned in before we got near to the edge of the track even though I was there.
"So then I couldn't react and then we collided."
Speaking immediately after the race, Rosberg had argued that Hamilton had been to blame for the collision.
"I am absolutely gutted, it's unbelievable," he told Sky Sports F1. "I was sure to win the race and lost it on the last lap, that's pretty intense.
"I had the inside position, a strong position, and went a bit deep into the corner, but that's fine because I dictate, but l was very surprised that Lewis turned in and that caused a collision.
"We were battling. I was struggling a little bit with my brakes because they got a bit hot in the end and my tyres were degrading so that gave Lewis a chance.
"Nevertheless, I was confident I could defend accordingly and bring it home."
In a furious assessment of the incident, which occurred just three races after Rosberg and Hamilton crashed out of the Spanish GP after clashing on the second corner, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described the sight of his two cars colliding as 'brainless'.
"Cars colliding seems a deja-vu. It's absolutely not what we want," a livid Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
"We are looking like a bunch of idiots and it's disrespectful to 1,500 people who work their nuts off to prepare the cars and this is why it needs to end.
Anthony Davidson analyses last-lap crash
"It seems that talking doesn't bring us any further so we need to think about all possible solutions and go as far as implementing the not very popular team orders.
"This is on the table now. This is what we are going to discuss, because maybe it's the only way we can manage the situation.
"I hate team orders, we owe it to the fans to let them race but if every race ends up in a collision between team-mates, it's not what we want."
