Please have a look at that video, here you can see all overtaking moves from different angels and it's totally obvious & visible that MM was not only racing, but he was racing with out any regrets (as he had nothing to lose)!!

-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OrYHEojBnE

After watching all these manoeuvers it was more than logic that VR had to make a point, and crashing out MM was for sure not his intention...