Formula One’s most senior race official has shot down speculation that Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Italian Grand Prix was staged.

Charlie Whiting, the race director who has overseen more than 300 Grands Prix, dismissed suggestions that Mercedes organised a ruse to have Nico Rosberg leave the track on Sunday so that Hamilton could take a crucial win as compensation for Rosberg ending his race at the Belgian Grand Prix a fortnight earlier.

Mercedes took to Twitter Monday to defuse accusations, posting a picture of three flying pigs with the message: 'BREAKING NEWS. Dramatic scenes in the skies over Brackley as #NR6 hands #ItalianGP victory to #F1 WDC rival #LH4 .'

If Mercedes were quick to dismiss the social media speculation that was still raging 24 hours after the end of the Italian Grand Prix, Whiting gave short shrift to the armchair conspiracy theorists, who suggested that Rosberg was told to hand over the lead halfway through the race at Monza by diving into an escape road at the first chicane.

Rosberg did not appear to lock his brakes as he missed the Variante del Rettofilo and weaved between the safety bollards, while Hamilton drove on. Sir Jackie Stewart, the three-time world champion, joined in the suspicions of the thousands who filled Twitter. “I thought it was a bit too easy,” he said. “I thought he could have at least made an effort to get round the corner, but he didn't.”

But Whiting, who has controlled Grands Prix for 17 years, told The Times: “Spare me. No, we didn’t even give the conspiracy theory a moment’s thought at the time. This sort of speculation might be good for people to talk about, but if Mercedes had wanted to fix the result, they wouldn’t have done it like that. They would have found a more subtle way to do it.”

It would not be Formula One if there was no conspiracy rows or ructions. But the sport has an unenviable track record of suspicious activities that culminated when it was discovered that Nelson Piquet Jr was ordered to crash his Renault at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix so that Fernando Alonso, his teammate at the time, could win.

After two controversial Grands Prix, the championship is being reduced to a fight between Hamilton and the sport’s new pantomime villain, Rosberg. While Hamilton lapped up the cheers in Monza and sipped champagne, Rosberg was jeered.

There is a danger that the taunts will affect the German and pressure him into more errors, such as the one in Monza - ruining one of the most thrilling World Championships in years.

Although Hamilton does not like booing, he admitted that fans betrayed their emotions. “It is always generally unnecessary,” he said. “They are just passionate fans. I think they are very much like me - they wear their hearts on their sleeves, so if they are unhappy about something they show it.”