The spat between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continued in the aftermath of Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, as the latter accused the Briton of "compromising" his race strategy.

The Mercedes' team-mates completed another one-two to see off the challenge of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in warm Shanghai conditions, as Hamilton comfortably took his second victory of the season to extend his lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship.

But during the race, Rosberg was heard over the team radio accusing Hamilton of deliberately slowing down ahead of him which then put him under "unnecessary" pressure from 3rd-placed Vettel.

Despite seeming too far away to potentially pass the 30-year-old, Rosberg explained a few seconds later: "If I go closer I destroy my tyres, like the first set. That’s the problem."

At one point, there was a real threat of Vettel threatening Mercedes' dominance again, as he did in Malaysia two weeks ago, as he closed the gap to just two seconds of Rosberg.

But after Ferrari attempted to undercut Rosberg with an earlier than planned pit stop, the Mercedes was able to pit almost immediately and regain his position - whilst Vettel's threat slowly fell away after the Silver Arrows' mirrored the Prancing Horse's tactics to switch to harder compound tyres. Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win with the Mercedes team, but Nico Rosberg appears less pleased with 2nd Speaking to BBC Sport after the race, a seething Rosberg said: "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.

"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. Of course we will have a discussion and we will see how it goes."

Hamilton - who was protecting his tyres around the circuit to ensure he ran a similar stint to Vettel's Ferrari - strongly denied the claims from his furious team-mate, insisting that Rosberg had ample opportunities to overtake.

"That's absolutely not the case," the Briton told the BBC. "I wasn't trying to back him up into Sebastian because ultimately we do need a one-two and that is a priority to the team.

"If he wanted to get close to overtake he could have done. I'm not really quite sure what his problem is.

"We came here to get one-two and we did. There shouldn't be too much aggro really."

But the stand-off between the pair, which has been ongoing ever since Mercedes began to dominate races in last year's Championship, continued into a heated post-race press conference.

A bemused Hamilton stated: "I wasn't controlling his race, I was controlling my own race.

"My goal was to look after my car. I had no real threat from Nico throughout the whole race."

But Rosberg, who has finished behind his Mercedes' team-mate in every qualifying session and each race so far this season, replied: "Interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself.Hamilton backed his corner when it was claimed that he had scuppered his team-mate's race 

As the tensions continued to soar between the two, Rosberg added: "Your pace was compromising my race.

"Driving slower than was maybe necessary meant Vettel was very close to me, and that opened up the opportunity for him to do the early stop and meant I had to cover him.

"That cost me race time, and as a result my tyres died [at the end of the race] as my stint was much longer.

"I'm unhappy about that today."

Hamilton, sat alongside his Rosberg, ended the press conference insisting that it is his job to focus on his race and not that of his team-mates.

"My job’s to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible," the 2014 drivers' world champion said. "And that’s what I did.

"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."

Last season, the personal battle between the two peaked when Rosberg and Hamilton came together in the Belgian Grand Prix in August - ending the latter's race. After which, Hamilton dominated the final races of the season as he took his second world title.

But the latest discord between the two in China seems to show that the feud between the two is far from over as Hamilton's fight to defend his title gathers pace.

His second win of the season sees him go 13 points above Vettel in the drivers' standings, with Rosberg a further four points behind his compatriot.

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.