Criticism was levelled at Juan Pablo by certain individuals but in the post race interviews the WilliamsF1 driver made it very clear that he gave Michael room to get round the corner.

Juan Pablo said: "I don’t know what was wrong with Michael on the straight. He had pretty good straight (line speed) and it was just in the cornering he was very slow. I went down into the hairpin, he blocked the inside, I went for the outside and we touched. I thought I gave him plenty of room. I wasn’t going to give him all the track but I gave him enough room to, you know, to go round the corner somehow."

Juan Pablo explained the circumstances of his passing move on Michael, acknowledging that he wanted to pass him quickly due to the extra grip he had with new tyres and that it was simply a case of if he could not pass him on the inside to try the outside where he knew there was sufficient grip.

Juan Pablo explained: "To be honest I knew I had new tyres and if I wanted to pass him it had to be straight away, to use the extra grip. So that’s what I did, I used the extra grip and I came out of the corner, put the nose in and he blocked me so I went straight to the other side and went around the outside.

He added: "Well, when I went to the corner I wasn’t going to give him all the track but I gave him enough room on the inside to go around the inside. I didn’t go for the kerb or anything. I was pretty wide, I braked really late and actually Rubens gave me a hand there because when I was following Rubens he was taking the corner pretty wide and I thought ah, there has got to be plenty of grip out there and I went and it was fine. When we touched, Michael probably went in too fast and when he touched it spun the car around."

No doubt the rest of the season we will most likely see further incidents of this type as the two drivers continue their on-track battles.