Lewis Hamilton has refused to blame Nico Rosberg in public for their collision on the last lap of the Austrian GP, stating instead that people can draw their own conclusions.
Rosberg was deemed responsible by the FIA stewards, who said that the German did not leave enough “racing room” for his team mate.
“Honestly, I don't want to get into that,” said Lewis when asked if he felt Rosberg was to blame. “I don't want to go into any negatives, I want to focus on the fact I won today and I will enjoy that. Honestly, getting dragged down by that sort of stuff...
“You guys can see it – you guys can see the maneuver, and how it evolved. And you can take your own opinion from that, I have my opinion on it, but I will keep it for myself.”
Hamilton said that Rosberg's mistake at Turn One at the start of the last lap was crucial, as it allowed him to gain momentum.
“It was definitely costly for him. I think he turned in early and clipped the curb, which you never do, you don't like to do, as you can't get on the power. He also turned in early, clipped early, and bounced and couldn't get power.
“It is easy when those things happen to follow and do the same thing and not get a good exit, but I managed to keep my shit together basically, and do the corner just as I did previously. Great on brakes, and I got a really good exit.”
Regarding the pass, he said: “I would have loved to go to the inside, but he had covered the inside and I went to the outside and even got ahead, which was mega, it is very hard to do that here. It's hard to follow at Turn 1, if he had done normally as the lap before, I wouldn't have the chance but fortunately the opportunity came.”
Asked about team boss Toto Wolff's frustration with collisions, he agreed that he hoped there would be no more issues this year.
“It is not something I go out to get involved in. I don't go out to get caught in collisions. Today as you could see I drove as wide as possible, within the white lines, so I left a lot of space, three cars could have come on the inside of me there.
“As a team boss and team, the team want to finish 1-2, that is our goal and my goal, I want to be at the front of the 1-2, but certain circumstances have led us to where we are today. And we have a lot of races ahead and we will continue to race, I am fighting for the World Championship so we will keep fighting, and hopefully through these experiences there will hopefully be no more and hopefully a lot less than what we have had so far this year. Hopefully they are a blip in the mist and we will continue racing forward.”
Hamilton insisted he wanted to focus on his victory.
“What a race man, the last couple of laps! This is such a hard track to overtake and I didn't know, last year I was trying to race and get the win, I didn't know if I would get an opportunity open but that is what I live for. I live for racing so I feel fantastic right now. I am excited now to hopefully ride this wave on to the next race.”
