Nico Rosberg handed team-mate Lewis Hamilton a lifeline in this year’s Formula One world title fight yesterday and immediately sparked rumours of a conspiracy.
A fortnight after his collision with Hamilton in Belgium, incurring the wrath and a fine from Mercedes, Rosberg blundered midway through the Italian Grand Prix when leading at Monza.
Hamilton needed no second invitation to take full advantage, bringing his car home ahead of Rosberg by three seconds to close the gap to 22 points in the drivers’ standings with six races remaining.
For a moment, though, as the five red lights disappeared, the gremlins that have occasionally reared their ugly head this season and given the 29-year-old a nasty bite, threatened to do so again.
Off the line, Hamilton was bogged down by a race-start mode issue and from his first pole for eight races dropped to fourth by the opening chicane, Variante del Rettifilio, whilst Rosberg powered away into the lead.
The obstacles of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa in his Williams were soon cleared, and following the only pit stop – Rosberg on lap 24, Hamilton 25 – the Brit then began to reel in his teammate and title rival.
And having made one mistake into Rettifilio on lap nine without penalty, Rosberg did the same on lap 29, but this time it cost him the lead and the race.
Unsurprisingly, in a world that thrives on rumour and conspiracy, a number of experienced paddock commentators suggested Rosberg’s brake issues into Rettifilio were deliberate.
The theory was in making such a move, ordered by the team, it was part of his payback for crashing into Hamilton in Belgium that cost the Briton heavily in the title race.
Rosberg, aware of the gossip, said: “They (the incidents) might look a bit strange, but it happened in practice too. I could have made the corner, no problem, but there was an extremely high probability my tyre would have been square afterwards, and so I would have needed to have made two pit stops and lost a lot of time. At that point I just decided to go straight on. With Lewis I should have tried to see how it went. I don't know, I just messed up.
“And I’ve heard about the theory, but 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. It’s not something where I have to give back something. Mistakes, errors happen, and that’s the way it is, I make an apology and on we go.
“It’s not like we now start shuffling and things like that, so there is no reason why I would do something like that on purpose.”
The result certainly keeps the championship scenario bubbling along, with the next event in Singapore in a fortnight.
Overall, it was Hamilton's 28th career victory, taking him past Sir Jackie Stewart, leaving only one other Briton ahead of him in F1’s record books – Nigel Mansell with 31. It is also the first time Hamilton has won six races in a season, but despite his feat, he still finds himself reeling in Rosberg.
He said: “I came here with a positive attitude, just hoping for no issues. I guess the cool thing is I had another serious one and I managed to pull through it. I’m quite grateful I didn’t lose it, I didn’t end up crashing in the first corner, touching anyone, locking up or anything like that. I managed to keep my composure, not lose too many places and recover from that.
“Naturally, I’m really pleased with the win, it feels like I have some momentum back as we go into the final races.”
Williams star Felipe Massa drove superbly to take third, with teammate Valtteri Bottas fourth ahead of Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel in fifth and sixth.
