Lewis Hamilton said he had no qualms about trying to fend off Pastor Maldonado as his tyres fading at the end of the European Grand Prix - even though the battle culminated in a collision that left the McLaren in the barriers.
Hamilton was holding second behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari before running out of tyre grip.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen overtook him, and Williams's Maldonado was trying to do likewise when he hit the McLaren on the penultimate lap.
"My tyres were gone," said Hamilton. "I don't know where I would have finished. Over the last lap or so, my tyres just went - it was almost like I had flat tyres at the back."
But asked whether he felt in retrospect he should have let Maldonado go, Hamilton replied: "You never let people past, you've got to race for every position you can get."