A spat between Red Bull and Mercedes broke out on Saturday after the fight for pole at Sepang.<\/p>\n
“Rosberg apparently forgot to look in his mirror,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko told German television Sky.<\/p>\n
He claims Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, not on a flying lap, “blocked” Sebastian Vettel as the reigning world champion pursued Lewis Hamilton’s pole position in wet Malaysia.<\/p>\n
In the end, Vettel’s deficit to pole was a mere five hundredths of a second.<\/p>\n
Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda hit back at Marko, claiming picking out a formula one car some few seconds behind amid plumes of rain spray is “not like when you’re driving on the highway”.<\/p>\n
And “I think there is traffic all over the roads, even in Austria,” Lauda added.<\/p>\n
“Such things can just happen,” said Lauda.<\/p>\n
Seated next to Rosberg in the post-qualifying press conference, Vettel said: “Nico couldn’t see much in his mirrors, I guess.<\/p>\n
“Obviously I was pissed off – sorry, angry – at the time because although it was a two or three second gap it was enough that the next corner was completely blind.”<\/p>\n
Rosberg, however, immediately professed his innocence.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think that was me,” he insisted.\u00a0 “I never had anybody behind me.”<\/p>\n
Shortly after, when polesitter Lewis Hamilton was discussing his session with reporters, the 2008 world champion became frustrated because teammate Rosberg and Vettel were still privately debating the ‘block’.<\/p>\n
“Hey guys, I can’t even hear myself talk,” said Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Later, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport quoted Rosberg as explaining: “Sebastian was two and a half seconds behind me, so I couldn’t see him at all in the spray.<\/p>\n
“Besides, I was too far in front of him to be in his way,” he insisted.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, it emerges that Red Bull’s team manager Jonathan Wheatley took the matter to the stewards, who promptly dismissed the complaint.<\/p>\n
Lauda shook his head: “Why would Helmut get in a bad mood about this rather than rejoice that Vettel is next to a Mercedes on the front row?”<\/p>\n
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