It is not often that we hear drivers defending each other, but Nico Rosberg believes Romain Grosjean was not to blame for their first lap incident.
The two drivers made contact on lap 1 of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, at the tight turn 9. The touch left Rosberg with a damaged front wing, which dropped him down the field. Grosjean also suffered a puncture and did well to finish in the points.
Despite some critisism on Grosjean's driving, Rosberg believes neither driver was to blame. He said "I can't blame him, I can't blame myself either," in a post race video blog.
He added "I think it was just a racing incident. Things just got a bit tight."
The clash and following stop for repairs dropped the German down the field. He came across the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, and going around the fast turn 16 the two made contact.
Despite the abrupt end to his race, Rosberg felt Mercedes made small steps forward.
"All in all it was obviously a very poor weekend. But there was a highlight for me: qualifying, eighth place was quite good because it's definitely an upward trend for us to be eighth, one tenth away from the best Ferrari, six tenths away from the best Red Bull."
"That's positive for sure, it shows that we're making progress.The pace was quite good at that point (before the crash with Karthikeyan), quite quick, pace-wise there seems to be an improvement there."
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Despite some critisism on Grosjean's driving, Rosberg believes neither driver was to blame. He said "I can't blame him, I can't blame myself either," in a post race video blog.
He added "I think it was just a racing incident. Things just got a bit tight."
The clash and following stop for repairs dropped the German down the field. He came across the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, and going around the fast turn 16 the two made contact.
It emerged that the HRT, which suddenly slowed before the impact, had suffered a hydraulics failure. This caused Rosberg to make contact with the rear tyre, propelling him over the HRT and in to the barrier.
He said on the accident "It was quite scary because I just saw blue sky, but in the end I was quite fortunate because it was not a very bad accident."
Despite the abrupt end to his race, Rosberg felt Mercedes made small steps forward.
"All in all it was obviously a very poor weekend. But there was a highlight for me: qualifying, eighth place was quite good because it's definitely an upward trend for us to be eighth, one tenth away from the best Ferrari, six tenths away from the best Red Bull."
"That's positive for sure, it shows that we're making progress.The pace was quite good at that point (before the crash with Karthikeyan), quite quick, pace-wise there seems to be an improvement there."
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