By Ian Gordon
MONTREAL, June 12 (Reuters) - Mercedes and Formula One world
championship leader Nico Rosberg want to continue together and
neither party is 'flirting' with alternative options as contract
talks continue, according to team boss Toto Wolff.
Rosberg, 30, will be out of contract at the end of the
season and is now in his seventh season with Mercedes, having
joined the current champions in 2010 after they took over the
Brawn team.
Wolff said the fact a new contract had yet to be agreed
would not be a distraction for the team or driver as they fight
for the title, and there was no hurdle delaying completion.
"It is not a type of instability as we would like to
continue in the same way with Nico as we did," the Austrian told
reporters at the Canadian Grand Prix.
"It is down to the detail in the contract. It is pretty
normal negotiations. We are not flirting somewhere else and he
is not flirting somewhere else, that is why it is not a
distraction."
Rosberg won the last three races of 2015 and first four of
this season. However he has not been on the podium in the last
two grands prix, and saw his overall lead shrink to 24 points
ahead of Montreal.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has beaten Rosberg
to the last two titles, agreed a new deal last year and has a
contract till the end of 2018.
Hamilton's contract negotiations were similarly protracted.
(Editing by Alan Baldwin)