Mercedes: claims Nico Rosberg made mistakes deliberately are ‘paranoid’

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/07/mercedes-nico-rosberg-paranoid-toto-wolff

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Mercedes have dismissed as “paranoid” suggestions that Nico Rosberg had deliberately made mistakes to allow his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.

TV commentators and other informed observers pointed out that Rosberg had made two strange errors, twice coming off the track when he went straight on at turn one, following his apology for crashing into Hamilton in the previous race in Belgium.

But Toto Wolff, the team’s motorsport boss, said: “Only a paranoid mind could have come up with such an idea. We told the drivers not to flat spot the tyres, because they would need to pit. So maybe that’s why [Nico] didn’t try to brake too hard.”

Rosberg denied the charge when he said: “They [the mistakes] might look a bit strange but I did it in practice. 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 which I’ve apologised for.”

But Sir Jackie Stewart, whose total of 27 grand prix victories was eclipsed by Hamilton’s win, said: “There was very little rubber smoke and I don’t quite understand that on a very easy part of the track. It was a part of the track where there was no real penalty for making that mistake, so I am a little confused.

“I thought it was a bit too easy. I thought he could have at least made an effort to get round the corner but he didn’t. The first I thought: ‘That’s wise’, because he knew it wasn’t a difficult thing to believe; the second time I thought: ‘Hello, what’s going on here?’”

Stewart, asked whether it might have been part of the Mercedes strategy, replied: “It has been suggested.”

Hamilton, who was closing on Rosberg the second time the German driver came off, said: “I put pressure on Nico and he didn’t seem to like it. I’ll have to do that more.” His sixth win of the season cut Rosberg’s lead at the top of the drivers’ world championship to 22 points.