Nico Rosberg was somewhat cagey when it came to commenting about whether he had spoken with his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton following the first lap collision between the pair put both cars out of the Spanish Grand Prix.
"So if we’ve spoken or not, as always that needs to be kept internally," the championship points leader replied when asked about the state of relations within the team following a stormy time between the pair in Barcelona.
"What I can say is that between the two of us it’s a thing of the past now and we’re moving on with everything. The relationship is the same as before and nothing’s changed.
"Going out on track I’m not going to be thinking about Barcelona, I’m going to be taking the same approach as always: flat out and do what’s necessary to try and win this grand prix, which is what I’ve come here to do."
But during the Wednesday afternoon drivers press conference in Monaco, Rosberg was pressed several further times to clarify whether he had spoken to Hamilton - and why he was so reluctant to say.
"I try and give you as much information I can because you guys are writing for all our supporters out there to have a good time reading some cool stuff," he responded.
"But there comes a point at the same time when we’re trying to keep a good spirit in the team and win lots of races, so there’s a balance and some things are are just better not to share."
Rosberg objected to his answer being characterised as a 'no comment', however. "I didn’t say it was a no comment, I said it’s best to keep it internal, that part, and then I tried to elaborate on everything else."
Rosberg denied that his answers had been scripted by the Mercedes team management, and finally opened up to give a little more detail into what had been happening behind the scenes since the costly incident.
"Of course we’ve spoken together as a team," he said. "How do we approach these happenings and everything. But actually now with respect to this exact answer, no, there’s been no discussions at all. I just feel like not discussing that, and that's it, pretty simple."
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