Merc boss says Hamilton-Rosberg needed 'caressing, hard words' to soothe frayed nerves

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said that their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg needed a bit of 'mediating, management, caressing and hard words' to calm the situation between the teammates and rivals in recent weeks.

Tensions between Hamilton and Rosberg, who are competing for the formula one title, were aggravated by the last race in Hungary, during which Hamilton refused team orders to let Rosberg through. Hamilton said that the team has since reassured him he did nothing wrong.

Wolff, head of Mercedes motorsport, said that one cannot expect it to run super-smoothly. He added that Hamilton and Rosberg are racing drivers, they are intensely competitive and they are fighting for the world championship, The BBC reported.

Hamilton trails The German by 11 points ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, where on Friday the Englishman was 0.6secs quicker than his teammate on their fastest runs in practice.

Wolff admitted that the team had made some mistakes in the way they handled the situation in Hungary. Rosberg had been on a strategy that required him to do one more stop than Hamilton, and came up behind the Englishman during his penultimate stint.

The team told Hamilton to let Rosberg by, but Hamilton refused because he realised that both were potentially competing for the win and that if Rosberg passed him, he would probably end up beating him.