Nico Rosberg has become the latest high-profile personalty in Formula One to have his say on Kimi Raikkonen's crash with Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel's crucial win in an enthralling British Grand Prix was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the drama at Silverstone, as searing temperatures and a Ferrari again crashing into one of the Silver Arrows caused Mercedes' blood to boil in their post-race interviews.

Pole-sitter Hamilton was hampered by a poor start that saw both Vettel and teammate Valtteri Bottas overtake him on the first straight, but it was on Turn Three that the drama really started to unfold.

Raikkonen, who was also looking to take advantage of Hamilton's slow start, suffered a big lock-up when attempting to get past the Brit down the inside, and although Hamilton left the Finn enough room, his Ferrari spun the Mercedes round and left Hamilton at the back of the field.

As a result of the crash, Raikkonen was slapped with a 10-second penalty during the race and has had two points added to his Super Licence.

Hamilton fought back admirably in front of his home crowd to set up a thrilling finale to the race that saw all of the Mercedes and Ferrari cars in the top four competing for the win.

Bottas, who had led for long periods of the race, was eventually reeled in and overtaken by Vettel, with Hamilton and Raikkonen doing the same to complete the podium in front of a raucous crowd.

Despite managing to produce a damage limitation-drive that softened the blow of Vettel's win, Hamilton cut an irritated figure after the race, avoiding media duties and conversation with the Ferrari drivers before they went out to the podium.

When he did speak to the press, Hamilton accused Ferrair of using "tactics".

"Interesting tactics I would say from this side but we'll do what we can to fight them," Hamilton said.

"All l would say is that it's two races in which a Ferrari has taken out a Mercedes. Valtteri and I have both lost out in those situations."

After seeing Vettel crash into Bottas in the French Grand Prix, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was quick to cry foul over the incident on Turn Three at Silverstone.

"Le Castellet was the first time we got taken out and this is the second - it's a lot of constructor points.

"To put it in James Allison's [Mercedes technical chief] words, this is either deliberate or incompetence."

Hamilton has since retracted his original comments, saying: "Kimi said sorry and I accept it and we move on. It was a racing incident and nothing more. Sometimes we say dumb s**t and we learn from it."

And now, Rosberg, who won the World Championship in 2016 and had an intense rivalry with Hamilton during their time together at Mercedes, has also defended Raikkonen.

"The answer is pretty simple. 100 percent not on purpose,'' Rosberg said in his latest vlog on his official YouTube channel.

"We also saw that in Austria because even there, Kimi is not driving for Sebastian. In Austria, Kimi was second and Sebastian third and there was no letting Sebastian past at all. They didn't even consider that.

"Kimi is driving for his own thing. Kimi was out there and just completely messed it up, braked way too late, locked up and torpedoed into Lewis.

"It is unusual for Kimi because usually those kind of things don't happen to him. So a bit strange. But definitely not on purpose, and well deserved to get a 10-second penalty and two points."

Hamilton may have gone back on the comments made in the heat of the moment on Sunday, but there's no doubt that this title fight between himself and Vettel, as well as between Mercedes and Ferrari, is starting to well and truly come to the boil.