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Mercedes denies lead-swap conspiracy theories

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Mercedes has moved quickly to stamp out conspiracy theories suggesting Nico Rosberg gave up the lead of the Italian Grand Prix to team-mate Lewis Hamilton under team orders.

Rosberg took the lead at the start after Hamilton made a slow getaway from pole position, but Hamilton fought back to put pressure on his team-mate on lap 28. Rosberg ran wide on the following lap at Turn 1 and lost the lead while negotiating the slalom of polystyrene blocks in the run off area.

After the race there were some suggestions Rosberg skipped the chicane under orders from his team in retribution for the collision he admitted to causing at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago. But when the theory was put to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, he quickly laughed off the suggestion.

"Only a paranoid mind could come up with such an idea," he said. "If it had been our idea then it was bloody well done! There was lots of pressure on Nico because Lewis was so quick yesterday. You could see that today as well."

Wolff said there were no technical issues with the car, but Rosberg had been told to move his brake balance forward to help look after the rear brakes.

"We tried to protect the rear, so we went forward with the brake balance. He hit the brake hard and missed the braking [point]. I think there is no technical reason behind that. It was bizarre but there isn't a mechanical reason behind it.

"For me it's important Mercedes wins and a 1-2 is even better. I want to stay as neutral as possible. After the incident in Spa it was probably a good result for everybody."

Rosberg said he would never have considered giving up a place on purpose.

"I've heard about that, but what would be the reason for me to do something like that deliberately. There is no possible reason," he said. "If you're ordered by the team to do it then you would do it, but there is no reason why the team would ask me to change position, or something like that.

"The only thing in people's minds could be Spa, but Spa was a mistake which I've apologised for. There were the necessary talks and everything, but that's it, it's forgotten.

"It's not something where I have to give back something. Mistakes, errors happen, and that's the way it is, [I made] an apology and on we go. It's not like we now start shuffling and things like that, so there is no reason why I would do something like that on purpose."

Rosberg added that lock ups had also happened earlier in the weekend.

"They might look a bit strange, but I did it in practice. I can make the corner, no problem, but there is an extremely high probability my tyre will be square afterwards, so I would need to do two pit stops and I'd lose a lot of time. At that point I just decided to go straight on. With Lewis I should have tried to see how it went. I don't know, I just messed up."

Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1

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