Nico Rosberg has been cleared to start the Monaco GP from pole position after stewards found no evidence that he deliberately steered off course at the conclusion of qualifying in order to beat Lewis Hamilton.
Pressed to the pointWhat Rosberg and Hamilton had to say about the incident in the post-session press conference...
Q: Nico, congratulations - pole for the second year in a row, but perhaps not exactly the way you wanted to achieve it, with that mistake at the end?Rosberg: "No, definitely not. I thought it was over once that happened, because I thought the track would ramp up and somebody else could beat the time but no, of course, in the end I'm really, really happy that it worked out in the end. To be on pole is fantastic, at home; couldn't be better."
Q: Coming to you Lewis. Nico's mistake, ironically, and the subsequent yellow flags meant that you couldn't improve on your lap. Your feelings?Hamilton: "Yeah, it is ironic. But it's OK. I was up a couple tenths so it's OK."
Q: Nico, your thoughts on what happened with Lewis and where your mistake left him. You're close friends, you're fighting for race wins, you're fighting for pole, for world championships but there's no question that your mistake disadvantaged him...Rosberg: "No, definitely, of course I'm sorry for Lewis. I didn't know exactly where he was but once I was reversing I did see he was coming up. Of course that's not great, but that's the way it is."
Q: Lewis, your response to that? When you're last on the track there's always that risk isn't there, you're vulnerable to something like this happening?Hamilton: "I don't have an answer to it."
Q: So Nico, obviously there's only one real major talking point, tell us in detail what happened on the way down to Mirabeau?Rosberg: "I just locked up, the outside front, I think it was, or the inside, I'm not sure, and that put me off line. I was still trying to make it but in the last moment I had to turn out because I was going to hit the tyre wall. It was close but I managed to go into the escape road."
Q: And what was going through your mind on that last lap? You, of course, had the advantage, having set the faster time first, so you knew you were knew you were up and you knew...Rosberg: "Well that's the whole reason why I'm... I know that I have a banker, a really good banker in there so I just try to push that little bit more and went over the edge."
Q: Lewis, give us your thoughts when you were told over the radio, or you saw the yellow flags and knew that it was all over.Hamilton: "Not really much."
Q: Can you elaborate?Hamilton: "Not really much! I didn't really think of anything. The lap was done and that was that."
Q: You said you were a couple of tenths up though, so you must have thought you were on target?Hamilton: "I was on target, yep... I remember starting the last lap and said 'this is it, this is going to be the lap'. I was two and a half tenths up and didn't get to finish it."
