Rosberg on Ricciardo clash: The corner was mine

Nico Rosberg says Daniel Ricciardo was at fault for the clash that cost both drivers the chance of challenging for victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The pair made contact with five laps of the race remaining when Ricciardo made a dive for second on the inside at turn one, only to out-brake himself and run wide on the exit. When Rosberg came across, Ricciardo's front-wing clipped Rosberg's rear tyre, leaving the former with nose damage and the latter with a puncture.

Rosberg - who went on to finish eighth - had initially accepted the clash as a racing incident in line with the stewards' stance, but would later prove more critical of Ricciardo's attempted pass, saying the Australian 'over-did it'

"From my point of view it was my corner properly because he over-did it and nevertheless on the exit of the corner his front wing was still right next to my rear tyre and punctured my tyre as a result. It was hugely disappointing."

Indeed, it was a particularly galling result for Rosberg given he stood to make significant in-roads into Hamilton's championship lead after the Mercedes driver endured an eventful afternoon that left him sixth at the finish. Instead, Rosberg has slipped 21 points adrift overall heading into the summer break.

"Sport can be really tough sometimes because today was an opportunity to take a lot of points from Lewis, so that really sucks."

Rosberg has also revealed why he was forced to take on the medium rubber, rather than the soft tyres still available to him, saying they weren't warm enough when he made an earlier than planned pit-stop under the safety car.

"The safety car didn't work out. It was such a late call as I was at the pit entry as they called me in and they didn't have time to get the soft tyres ready, so they fitted the harder tyres. I was not so good at the restart against Ricciardo as he had soft tyres at the restart and that is why he could attack me."