Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's relationship has again hit the rocks after the latter accused the former of "compromising his race" at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair have had their fair share of disagreements in the past, with their relationship getting strained last season when Hamilton was forced to retire at the Belgian Grand Prix after Rosberg crashed into him in the early stages of the race.
Things seemed to got back to normal between the two after that incident as Hamilton went on to claim the championship last season.
However, Rosberg has again opened a fresh feud with his teammate, accusing Hamilton of slowing him down in Shanghai on Sunday.
The German felt that Hamilton, who ultimately went on to win the race, put him under "unnecessary pressure" by slowing down and giving a chance to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to overtake him.
The four-time champion indeed attempted to undercut Rosberg by going into the pits earlier than scheduled, but the German was able to handle it.
However, the 29-year-old was not happy as he believed that Hamilton intentionally did this in order to keep him busy with Vettel.
"It compromised my race massively at the time because the best possible race for Lewis was to back me off into Vettel so Vettel would try to undercut me and I would have to respond," the German told BBC.
"It was very frustrating Lewis was taking it as easy on his tyres. Interestingly, he said he was just thinking about himself and that says it all. What upset me is we went through exactly that before the race."
Hamilton, meanwhile, denied the accusation, insisting that he was just focusing on his race and he did not do anything intentionally to slow his teammate down.
"It's not my job to look after Nico's race. My job's to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible - and that's what I did," the defending world champion told F1's official website.
"I didn't do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up. I just was focussing on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could have tried but he didn't."
