Cape Town - Nico Rosberg reckons Lewis Hamilton should not have been hit with a five-second penalty in Brazil because Alex Albon "left the door open" during their incident in the closing laps of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The stewards stripped away Hamilton's podium finish at Interlagos after his late tangle with Albon, who saw his first podium chance slip through his fingers, while Hamilton dropped to P7 as a result.

Hamilton "massively apologised" to Albon after the race, but his former team-mate reckons that a penalty was perhaps a bit too harsh given the fact that the Red Bull pretty much gave Hamilton an open invitation to pass.

"Of course, Lewis was more at fault," Rosberg said via his YouTube channel.

"Albon was less at fault, but he left the door open completely for Lewis to dive in.

"Lewis did get quite far in there, but I don't know if it was worth a five-second penalty. With the way things have been going this year, maybe I would have preferred no penalty because Albon has some fault as well. It is not 100 per cent Lewis.

"Albon left the door open and he should have left a bit of space. There is no reason why you can't leave a little space.

"Albon said he wasn't expecting Lewis to dive down there and wasn't looking, but that's not a valid excuse.

"It would have been nice, maybe, not to have a penalty there to really free up the racing and let the drivers sort these things out themselves."

Rosberg has also had his say on the latest Ferrari clash between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, where he feels Vettel was more at fault for the incident than his team-mate.

- TEAMTalk