Lewis Hamilton hints at team payback to Rosberg

Nico Rosberg (right) celebrates his victory with teammate Lewis Hamilton on the podium after winning the Mexican Grand Prix. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

Rosberg, who secured his first victory in nearly five months in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, was furious with Hamilton at the previous race after the pair banged wheels on the opening lap.

Rosberg accused Hamilton of aggressive driving in Austin, but it was ultimately the German’s late mistake which gift-wrapped the championship to his team-mate.

On Formula 1’s first visit to Mexico in 23 years on Sunday, pole-sitter Rosberg led until his team opted to bring him in for a precautionary second pit stop.

Hamilton was urged by the pit wall to follow suit, but he initially defied the order and said he would be able to get to the end of the race on his current set of tyres.

Hamilton’s engineer Peter Bonnington then issued a team instruction for the triple world champion to stop with 23 laps remaining.

Naturally sceptics speculated that Mercedes orchestrated the victory for Rosberg as payback for his coming together with Hamilton in Austin.

When the theory was put to Hamilton, hesaid: “No. I never think those kind of things, but I know the team has felt the need to be extra warm [to Nico].

“I do know what I mean but I’m not going to say what I mean. You should ask Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda. You should put those questions to them about how they feel about it, and what they have to do behind the scenes to keep him happy.”

On his decision to defy the team order to pit, Hamilton added: “They said they wanted to do a one-stop, and the tyres were good, and they had the life to do the whole distance. But we did have a pit window to the other cars so we could do a free stop.

“In one respect, it’s smart to do, but on the other side of things, I had nothing to lose. I was racing and that’s why I was considering staying out.

“But, when the team say it’s an order, it’s an order, you do what they ask. But it wasn’t fun.”