SEPANG, Malaysia -- Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has labelled Nico Rosberg's 10-second penalty for hitting Kimi Raikkonen at the Malaysian Grand Prix as "complete nonsense".
Rosberg was penalised for barging past Raikkonen at Turn 2 on lap 38, slapping his right-rear tyre against the sidepod of the Ferrari as he did so. Wolff said his main focus after the race was on Lewis Hamilton's engine failure, which occurred three laps later, but was also outspoken about the 10-second penalty that was added to Rosberg's race time.
"The penalty is just complete nonsense," he said. "It's not what I want to focus on because we have let Lewis down today and that should be something that we are beating up ourselves [for] and not moan about an unfair penalty that didn't make any difference because Nico was still third [at the end of the race].
"But over a couple of months ago we decided together [in Formula One] that we wanted to allow the racing between all the cars and if it wasn't 100 percent clear that someone was at fault then we would let them race against each other ... and then this. I don't know, it is for others to comment and not my main priority after that race today."
Rosberg managed to build a 12 second gap over Raikkonen so that the penalty did not affect his final position, but also revealed he had to push his engine harder than he wanted to build up the buffer.
"I accept [the penalty]," he said. "And I'm fortunate that it didn't cost me a position in the race, of course. I had to give it everything lap after lap again in the end there to re-gap that 10 seconds to make sure we had a 10 second gap, and at the same time save the engine because of Lewis's problem. We were a bit hesitant to run it all out until the end so it's a bit of a two-pronged."
Rosberg said he had not planned the move as he approached Turn 1, but decided to make the lunge at Turn 2 when he saw Raikkonen leave a gap.
"You just take it as it comes, and I saw the opportunity and knew I had to give it a go at some point and of course be a bit aggressive to get by.
"I saw the opportunity in the middle [of the corner]. You need to be creative, wherever it comes take it."