Rosberg not looking back

20 August 2015 04:01

Nico Rosberg insists neither he, nor his Mercedes team, will re-visit his calamitous collision with Lewis Hamilton at last year's Belgian Grand Prix.

Rosberg was held accountable by Mercedes for the incident with his team-mate in the opening stages of the Spa-Francorchamps race.

While the duo were dicing for the lead on the second lap, Rosberg's front wing collided with Hamilton's left-rear tyre. Hamilton sustained a puncture and was forced to retire from the race.

Rosberg managed to cross the line in second, but later accepted responsibility for the crash, and was reportedly hit with a six-figure fine by his own team.

The German had been leading the championship at the time of the crash, but he won just one race from the ensuing nine following the high-profile collision.

Asked it the team will re-visit last year's now infamous collision, Rosberg said: "No. Definitely not.

"It was a tough time after the race for everybody, but there were no regrets and I learned a lot.

"It was all clarified after this race last year and going forward, and discussed again in the winter, so it is all very, very clear."

Rosberg finished only eighth at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month following a collision with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps of a chaotic race.

He had been on course to slash the championship gap to Hamilton who himself could manage only sixth after one of his worst displays in recent times.

"Hungary was very annoying as it was a great opportunity to close the gap on Lewis," added Rosberg, who is 21 points adrift of Hamilton ahead of this weekend's race.

"It was tough but always in sport the emotions are not very long-lasting so I very much enjoyed the summer break.

"There are 21 points between us - and at times in the last race I was leading the championship if you took a cut at that time - so it was very close in the first half of the season.

"In sport it can go either way so I need to keep going like this, keep pushing, keep winning, races and I believe I can make it happen."

Rosberg's wife Vivian is due to give birth to their first child next week, and the German, who turned 30 last month, joked he is struggling to adapt to imminent fatherhood.

"Everything is packed," he said. "We just have family cars at the moment in the garage - a Mercedes ML and a Mercedes GLK and the baby seat is in the ML. It took me two hours to put it in there and it was one of my toughest recent experiences."

Source: PA