Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has insisted that Lewis Hamilton did not deliberately hold up teammate Nico Rosberg during the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton eased to his fourth career win at the Shanghai International Circuit, but it looked like it was set to be a close race at the half-way stage as Hamilton, Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were separated by just eight seconds.
Rosberg accused Hamilton of deliberately driving slower in order to back him into the path of Vettel behind, but the race winner said that he was just preserving his tyres before Wolff later added that the issue was sorted in the team debrief.
Wolff told reporters: "It was a good debrief because it was a positive debrief. There wasn't any animosity. There was much more positivity today with not doing any mistakes in the race and I know what you want to hear, but generally everybody was in good spirits.
"I think he didn't do it on purpose. We have cleared that now. There wasn't any intention from Lewis to slow Nico down in order to make him finish third or worse, 100%. He didn't know the gaps behind Nico, what he knew was that he had to take that tyre longer than we have ever run it the whole weekend.
"This is why he decided to slow down in the way he did."
Rosberg has yet to win a race this season, and sits third in the drivers' standings.
Charlie Bennett
