Lewis Hamilton still believes that team-mate Nico Rosberg deliberately made a ‘mistake’ during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix in a move he described as taking their battle “to another level”.
The German secured pole in Monaco after setting his flying lap before going off circuit and causing yellow flags whilst Hamilton was on his quick lap, forcing the Briton to back off.
It was one of the tipping points in their relationship, with the Briton suspecting the ‘mistake’ was in fact deliberate, somewhat ending their friendship.
“From Bahrain Nico did one thing, Barcelona I did one thing, and then Nico took it to another level in Monaco which definitely made it very difficult for us, for me [to trust him],” the 2014 champion told Sky Sports.
“Nothing has changed about my opinion of what happened [in Belgium],” he said of Rosberg’s reported confession that he deliberately hit him, adding: “It is the same for Monaco. But it is cool because I am world champion now.”
Hamilton also addressed the rows in Bahrain and Spain where both used engine settings they weren’t supposed to in order to overtake their team-mates.
“The other side of the garage used a couple of the switches you are not allowed to use to enable him to get past [me in Bahrain],” he explained.
“Then when we got to Barcelona a similar thing happened on my side of the garage, but it happened in a moment when we weren’t particularly racing and later the engineers calculated everything and said it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway, but it was still not allowed.”
