Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton rejects Rosberg contact claims

Lewis Hamilton has rejected Nico Rosberg's claims that his team-mate was too aggressive at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

When asked about the first corner contact which saw Hamilton take the lead and dropped Rosberg to fourth place, the German replied: "For sure it was extremely aggressive, we hit each other, or I would say Lewis came into me, so obviously that’s not good."

However, despite Toto Wolff saying he would need to talk to the drivers after Hamilton's title celebrations had died down, the triple world champion insists there was no aggression in his attempt to pass.

"I didn’t try and push him hard, it wasn’t intentional," Hamilton said. "I just watched the replay, we were both on wets and the outside is always the grippier side so Nico had the grippier line, but I was ahead so it was my line. We went in and I started to turn but I understeered into him, he steered round and we touched.

Wolff wary of rift between Rosberg and Hamilton

"I don’t feel like I was aggressive, at the end of the day I was on the inside so it was my line. Of course there is always those comments that come up but I would never intentionally do something like that to my team-mate."

When it was put to Hamilton that there may be talks with Mercedes bosses Wolff and Niki Lauda, he said he doesn't feel he did anything wrong.

"Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but it doesn’t matter because I won the race so I feel pretty good about it.

"I don’t go to finish second. Growing up, as a family we never had anything handed to us. Today, absolutely we fight for position in turn one but we went in so quick and I was on the inside, so we touched. Fortunately no-one had any damage, Nico got back to the lead… I was going to take him anyway. Somehow I was going to get past him in those ten laps. I generally disagree with him."

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AS IT HAPPENED: United States Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.