Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes won the Italian Grand Prix because it was "the quickest" and not because of the tyre pressure infringement which initially kept his victory in doubt.
Mercedes came under investigation in the closing stages of the race as it found both Mercedes drivers had tyre pressures below the minimum set by the FIA and tyre supplier Pirelli, only to be cleared. The FIA checked both cars' tyres at the start of the race and found Hamilton's left-rear tyre pressure to be 0.3PSI below the minimum of 19.5PSI, while the same tyre for Nico Rosberg was 1.1PSI too low.
Hamilton was not told why Mercedes wanted him to push at the end of the race and was even unaware title rival Rosberg had retired on the penultimate lap with an engine failure until told about it in the post-race press conference. Mercedes defended itself after the race and insisted it had done nothing wrong, putting its late messages to Hamilton down to an "abundance of caution".
Though he had not spoken to his team at the time of the interview, Hamilton did not believe 0.3PSI on one tyre was enough to account for the dominance of his victory, which saw him lead from start to finish.
Asked if it such an infringement would lead to a performance gain, Hamilton said: "Formula One is about running to the maximum. Every single driver and every single car here, there are limits on lots of things, weights and all sorts.
"They run to the bear minimum - all the time its above but as low as we can go. So if it's 20, it's 20.1, or 20.001 or whatever. That's what we do, that's what Formula One is all about. And for whatever reason today, 0.3... if it is 0.3 its 0.3, but at the end of the day it had no effect on the car. That small amount on the tyre doesn't do anything, it has to be much bigger, half or one PSI to make a difference.
"I'm sure people can prove it as well, Pirelli will be able to prove that won't make a difference - particularly on one tyre. If it was on all the tyres maybe you can argue it. It would be very much a shame but ultimately that isn't the reason we won today. We won because we were the quickest."
Asked if how such an error could be made in a sport like Formula One, Hamilton replied: "I don't know, that's not my job to think about. I don't know what to say."