Nico Rosberg has revealed that Sebastian Vettel phoned him after the race to apologise for the first corner collision which dropped the Mercedes driver to the back of the grid.
Vettel, starting fifth, came up the inside of Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the first corner but found himself unable to slow down as Rosberg closed the door on the pair. The two made contact, which span the Mercedes round. Whilst Rosberg was able to continue, Vettel retired with damaged front suspension.
Speaking after the race, Vettel took blame for the incident – which the stewards handed down a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Japan – but didn't go as far as apologising to Rosberg.
But he did so later in the day according to Rosberg: "Sebastian called me actually, he apologised, which is nice.
"It doesn't get me back the points that I lost, but it's still nice to hear that."
Meanwhile Rosberg sympathised with team-mate Lewis Hamilton after his engine failed whilst he was leading the race.
"Points wise it was a good day for me, even though not for the right reasons, because I want to get them on merit," he added.
"I can understand Lewis's situation because I've been there as well and it's horrible when you deserve to win a race and the technology lets you down.
"I'm sure he's really, really gutted, that's very understandable."
