Nico Rosberg took on the role of journalist as he asked Lewis Hamilton whether he felt he had been blocked during qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was improving on his previous lap in Q3 when he came up behind Rosberg exiting Turn 6. With Rosberg going slowly but not moving off the racing line, Hamilton had to pass his team-mate on the inside of Turn 7, which would have compromised his lap.
With Hamilton facing the press after qualifying, Rosberg intervened in the interview session to ask a question of his own.
Having identified himself as “Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas,” Rosberg then asked: “There’s a lot of comments on Twitter saying Nico blocked you, is that true he blocked you on your second timed lap?”
Hamilton replied: “I think you should probably ask him. I think he’ll have a good opinion on that.”
While the exchanged was intended as a light-hearted one, Hamilton had earlier said he didn’t feel he was blocked by his team-mate.
“I did improve on my first sector, it was quickest, but then I just bailed out. I had traffic. I came up on quite a few cars ahead. The sector was looking quite good but the cars were going to get in the way so I decided to take a second lap.”
Asked if he felt he was held up, Hamilton replied: “No … I decided to take the second lap.”
The incident turned out to be redundant, with Hamilton’s first timed lap good enough for him to take pole position, while Rosberg qualified third behind Sebastian Vettel.
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