Chinese Grand Prix 2015: Lewis Hamilton baffled as Nico Rosberg accuses him of compromising his race

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have begun their spat for the 2015 season after the former accused his teammate of gamesmanship at the Chinese Grand Prix Reuters

Lewis Hamilton was left baffled after his victory at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, 12 April as his teammate Nico Rosberg accused him of compromising his race.

The British driver cruised to his second victory of the season unchallenged, but his teammate felt that Hamilton going slower than expected in the second stint, meant that Rosberg was put under unnecessary pressure by Sebastian Vettel in third.

The German [Rosberg], who was in second place, was closing in on Hamilton in the first stint and asked the team via the radio to ask Hamilton to speed up as his tyres were suffering in the turbulent air from the car ahead.

Apart from that, the Ferrari of Vettel was also close behind in the first stint in third place and Rosberg felt that, due to Hamilton's speed, the former Red Bull driver was closing in on him and even tried an undercut to pass him during the pit stops.

"Interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself," Rosberg said, as quoted on the official F1 site.

"Your pace was compromising my race. Driving slower than was maybe necessary meant Vettel was very close to me, and that opened up the opportunity for him to do the early stop and meant I had to cover him. That cost me race time, and as a result my tyres died [at the end of the race] as my stint was much longer. I'm unhappy about that today," the German driver added.

However, Hamilton refused to agree with his teammate and insisted that he was not controlling Rosberg's race but just managing his own. He also felt that if the German thought he was being held up, he [Rosberg] should have made a move and gone past him.

"It's not my job to look after Nico's race, it's my job to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible," Hamilton said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

"That's what I did. I didn't do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up, I was just focused on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could have tried, but he didn't," the 2014 World Champion added.