Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's tussle for the Formula One World Championship continued on Sunday as conspiracy theorists claimed Hamilton's Italian Grand Prix victory was rigged.
Sir Jackie Stewart, usurped by Hamilton for F1 race wins, and a number of experienced paddock commentators suggested Rosberg's brake issues into Rettifilio were deliberate.
"I thought, 'hello, what’s going on here?'" Stewart said. "He could have at least made an effort to get round the corner but he didn’t."
Hamilton's Italian Grand Prix win set conspiracy theorists tongues a-wagging
The theory was in making such a move, ordered by the team, it was part of his retribution for crashing into Hamilton in Belgium that cost the Briton heavily in the title race.
Put to Rosberg, he was already aware of the gossip as he said: "They (the incidents) might look a bit strange, but it happened in practice too.
"I could have made the corner, no problem, but there was an extremely high probability my tyre would have been square afterwards, and so I would have needed to have made two pit stops and lost a lot of time.
"At that point I just decided to go straight on. With Lewis I should have tried to see how it went. I don't know, I just messed up.
Hamilton (left) takes the lead as Rosberg takes the escape road
"And I've heard about the theory, but what would be the reason for me to do something like that deliberately? There is no possible reason.
"If you're ordered by the team to do it then you would do it, but there is no reason why the team would ask me to change position, or something like that.
"The only thing in people's minds could be Spa, but Spa was a mistake which I've apologised for.
"There were the necessary talks and everything, but that's it, it's forgotten.
"It's not something where I have to give back something. Mistakes, errors happen, and that's the way it is, (I make) an apology and on we go.
"It's not like we now start shuffling and things like that, so there is no reason why I would do something like that on purpose."