In slipstream
Defending champion accused by Mercedes teammate of ‘driving too slow’ and ‘thinking about himself’ after dominant show
races, played down the risk.
“I’m not quite sure how I compromised his (race)...he was 4.4, 4.5 seconds behind so he was never close,” he said.
Mercedes bosses Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda said the latest spat would be managed internally.
“This is a rivalry and it was always a rivalry and it’s going to be very intense in the future,” said Wolff. “You need to expect this kind of discussion and controversy.” 1 Lewis Hamilton 1m:39:42.008s 2 Nico Rosberg +0.714s 3 Sebastian Vettel +2.988s 4 Kimi Raikkonen +3.835s 5 Felipe Massa +8.544s 6 Valtteri Bottas +9.885s 7 Romain Grosjean +19.008s
DRIVERS STANDINGS
1 Lewis Hamilton 68 pts 2 Sebastian Vettel 55 pts 3 Nico Rosberg 51 pts 4 Felipe Massa 30 pts 5 Kimi Raikkonen 24 pts CONTRUCTOR STANDINGS 1 Mercedes 119 pts 2 Ferrari 79 pts 3 Williams 48 pts 4 Sauber 19 pts 5 Red Bull Racing 13 pts McLaren’s Jenson Button was handed a time penalty that cost him 13th place after accepting responsibility for a collision with Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. Renault have warned Red Bull and Toro Rosso to expect more pain in Bahrain after both teams suffered power unit problems.
“As a company, we hold our hands up when it’s our problem, and today that was the case,” said Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul. “With just five days to go, we know that Sakhir (Bahrain Grand Prix) will be another test.”