Rosberg collides with Hamilton to 'prove a point'

The gloves most certainly are off in this fantastic fight for the 2014 world championship. Lewis Hamilton in his media briefing after the Belgian Grand Prix says that Nico Rosberg deliberately did not avoid the collision at Les Combes which led to a puncture for the #44 Mercedes to prove a point after the team orders fiasco in Hungary.

Here’s the quote in full from crash.net “It looked quite clear to me but we just had a meeting about it and he basically said he did it on purpose,” Hamilton said. “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 [Wolff], Paddy [Lowe] and all those guys who are not happy with him as well.”

He goes on to explain Nico’s mind-set as he came into the weekend. “It's interesting because we had that meeting on Thursday and Nico expressed how angry he was – I was thinking 'It's been three weeks and you've been lingering?!' He expressed how angry he was, he literally sat there and said how angry he was at Toto and Paddy. But I thought we should be good after that and then this result … it's interesting.”

Sensational words from Lewis Hamilton and one which contrasts greatly with the immediate reaction to the incident. Initially many thought it was just a clumsy racing incident, no one thought it was a deliberate act. My initial reaction was that it was Rosberg’s fault, that he was being a bit too opportunistic but that perhaps Lewis could have left more room. This is obviously not the case. However, he did not deliberately cause the clash but he did not remove himself from harm when it was obvious what was about to happen.

As Lewis says, it’s ‘interesting’ especially because throughout the season Rosberg has been painted as the driver who keeps his emotions under control and will not be controlled by them in stark contrast to how Lewis is often portrayed. But this incident clouds everything.

The benefit of the doubt was given to Nico in Monaco after the qualifying episode when he went off track which prevented Lewis setting a quicker time for pole position. Does that now have to be qualified if he thinks these things through?

Could this all stem from the Bahrain fight when many accused Nico of not being aggressive enough to get past an obviously slower Lewis? Has this been brewing since then? In Hungary Lewis was asked to let Nico through as he was on a different strategy to which Lewis being a much greater thinker than people give him credit for had already worked out that if he did he would be beaten at the end of the race, so why should he?

Rosberg was told Lewis would let him by, but this was not was Lewis was asked to do, it was more if he does try to pass don’t defend. Nico was never close enough to attempt a move. So we come to Belgium in which that incident has obviously been plaguing Nico’s mind throughout the summer break and he wanted to reassert himself against Lewis and in a way the team, who ended up supporting Hamilton’s stance on the Hungary team orders.

For a driver who is meant to logically work through things Rosberg’s attitude to this race seems rather backwards. He had an 11 point lead in the championship, has impressed people with his speed against Hamilton, what he did could well have ended up with his nose damaged or off and Lewis scampering away to victory and maybe even taking the championship lead. It was a stupid thing to do to ‘prove a point.’ Prove a point by making a clean move and demonstrating who the better driver is.

Admittedly we were only two laps into the race but Nico looked quicker at that point, he had another 42 laps to do something. To just leave your nose in a gap which was always going to close can now in the light of what Lewis says be called crude. A lot of people’s attitudes towards Rosberg will change now but even if it has been overblown, Rosberg is tainted. Surely this is not the way he would want to win a world championship.

Of course we have yet to hear how Nico will react to Lewis’ accusations. On Mercedes part they say that Lewis is telling the truth but Toto Wolff has said Nico's comments may have been misinterpreted. Rather than he said he deliberately hit Lewis, it was that he just didn't backdown. In the end that surely is the same thing for he knew it might cause a collision? For now Nico has said it’s a racing incident and it should be pointed out the stewards thought the same as there was no investigation but it’ll still be interesting to see how the team in particular respond to this.

To Rosberg’s credit he drove another fine damage limitation race after the incident, coming back strongly from a nose change to come home second. On the podium he looked shaken as the boos rang out from the grandstands and in the media pen he looked very uncomfortable. Was this someone who couldn’t understand why he has being grilled so hard or someone who knew exactly why?

In any event it cost Hamilton dearly. Lewis thought he should retire as soon as he got back out the pits from changing his puncture as the floor was wrecked costing him a lot of downforce.

He carried on with persuasion from the team but retired five laps from the end. You might have thought he would’ve learned from British Grand Prix qualifying to carry on pushing until there’s absolutely no hope, but in the end it was a pointless weekend which started strongly. He took the lead from second on the grid to head pole sitter Rosberg. He held off Sebastian Vettel in a near re-run of last year’s opening lap and then came Rosberg’s nosecone and that was that.

So Rosberg now holds a 29 point lead in the championship but what’s occurred in Belgium today looks like it will affect how the rest of the season unfolds especially from the team dynamic point of view at Mercedes. Team boss Toto Wolff has already said they will look at how they will run their drivers in the future.

I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll be put on leashes but Mercedes do not want another accident like this or worse. The tension in Italy is going to be electric and I think sparks will fly. All eyes will be on the Silver Arrow squad, how will Lewis react at the next race, will Rosberg remain defiant and how will Mercedes control their drivers? We’ll leave it to Lewis to finish: "He just came in there and said it was all my fault. When you’re out there you have to trust the people with their heads and [that they] don’t do things deliberately. After that meeting I don’t really know how to approach the next race."