F1: Rosberg insists incident not deliberate

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Nico Rosberg insists he did not deliberately cause an incident in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying to deny Lewis Hamilton pole.

The German slid down the Mirabeau escape road after locking up on his final flying lap in Q3. Rosberg held provisional pole at the time, and Hamilton abandoned his own lap after coming across the yellows for his teammate, ensuring that Rosberg stayed ahead. The stewards are investigating the incident.

"I tried to make it, but turned out as I was going to hit the tire wall," said Rosberg. "It was close but I managed to go into the escape road.

"I know that I had a really good banker in there, so I tried to push that little bit more and went over the edge."

Hamilton refused to answer when asked if he felt Rosberg had tried to deliberately disrupt his pole bid.

Rosberg insisted he had thought pole was lost when he went off. "I thought it was over," he said. "I thought the track would ramp up and somebody else would do a time. But I'm really, really happy – to be on pole at home is fantastic; it couldn't be better."

Asked for his thoughts on his incident denying Hamilton a pole shot, Rosberg replied: "Of course I'm sorry for what happened for Lewis. I didn't know exactly where he was until I was reversing and saw him coming up.

"Of course that's not great, but that's the way it is."