Lewis Hamilton believes Nico Rosberg should have finished third rather than himself, after the German was told to hold station in fourth.
Rosberg was clearly unhappy with the demand and complained to the team over the radio: “Tell him [Hamilton] to speed up, this is too slow.” To which team principal Ross Brawn replied: “Please drop back, leave a gap, we need to look after the cars.”
During the podium interviews, Hamilton admitted Rosberg had done a better job and should probably have been standing where he was.
“If I’m honest, I feel Nico should be standing here,” he said. “He had better pace through the race.
“He is a great team-mate. I will speak to the team, or apologise. I said to him he did a fantastic job.
“Nico deserved to be where I am. With the position in the championship the team thought it was logical to stay in position, but Nico drove a smarter and more controlled race than me today.
“Would I let him past in future? I probably would.”
Rosberg meanwhile said he had no qualms with the team-order and thanked his team-mate for the kind words after.
“It’s a team effort and I respected the team’s opinion,” he said.
“It was an important day. We’ve had such a tough time in past years, so to be third and fourth, fighting with the Red Bulls, is such a milestone.
“It’s nice to hear him say that. It was fair play from me today.”
