SPIELBERG, Austria -- Nico Rosberg stands by his belief that he was not to blame for the collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix, despite the stewards penalising him for the last-lap contact.
Rosberg was given a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points on his superlicence after the stewards judged that he did not leave "racing room" for Hamilton on the outside of Turn 2. Rosberg retained fourth place despite the time penalty, but said he was disappointed to learn that the stewards said he was to blame.
"I got unlucky and my car was very damaged, so I lost 3 positions, lost the win," he said. "A horrible end to the weekend. I also got penalised for the incident, ten seconds which doesn't change the result but shows they gave me the blame, which sucks. I respect that but I am of a different opinion.
"Every time for the team it is bad if we collide like that because it is the worst thing that could happen. We didn't lose too many points today, but for the team it is not good. That is tough."
Rosberg does not deny that he tried to run Hamilton wide at Turn 2, but contests the assertion that he did not leave enough space.
"I'm on the inside, I have the right to defend and I don't need to take the ideal line," he said. "I had Lewis on the outside and I wanted to keep him there, of course always leaving him track space -- that's clear and that was always the intention.
"It's a fact that he had space, you can look at the onboard and all the other cameras. Of course, after the collision it may look like that's not the case because I am airbourne and I lose grip, so of course that takes me further out of the track. After that it may look like there is less space, but that's irrelevant because it is after the collision.
"I just want to repeat, at all times there was space prior to the collision."