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Belgian GP: Wolff says Rosberg's crash comments were misinterpreted

Mercedes Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff believes Nico Rosberg's comments about his Belgian Grand Prix collision with Lewis Hamilton have been misconstrued

The 2014 F1 title battle erupted into a new controversy at Spa when Hamilton alleged that Rosberg had admitted to deliberately triggering their lap-two tangle to "prove a point".

But while confirming that Hamilton's account of Rosberg's phrasing was correct, Wolff said the German was suggesting he had simply not backed down when they were wheel-to-wheel, rather than confessing to deliberately hitting his team-mate and championship rival.

"Nico felt he needed to hold his line. He needed to make a point, and for Lewis, it was clearly not him who needed to be aware of Nico," said Wolff.

"[Rosberg] didn't give in. He thought it was for Lewis to leave him space, and that Lewis didn't leave him space.

"So they agreed to disagree in a very heated discussion amongst ourselves, but it wasn't deliberately crashing. That is nonsense."

Although he dismissed the allegation that Rosberg had hit Hamilton on purpose, Wolff said that did not mean his fury towards his driver had subsided.

"It doesn't change the scenario at all because the incident, as I see it, is not acceptable for us," he said.

"What we saw there was that Nico was not prepared to take the exit, and that caused the collision.

"That is not something we want to happen.

"We had a collision that could have been avoided, a second-lap collision, it was Nico who attacked and he shouldn't have done it.

"It was also to show he was not prepared to give in.

"With hindsight, if he could turn back time, Nico would probably not do it again in the way he did."

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