The race stewards at Barcelona have declared today's first lap clash which saw both Mercedes eliminated to be a racing incident.

Following a difficult start, Hamilton held the lead on the approach to Turn 1 but was caught out when Rosberg attacked from the outside and led into the corner.

The Briton subsequently mounted an attack coming out of Turn 3, sensing that Rosberg had slowed.

As the world champion made a move to the right of the race leader, his nose seemingly alongside the rear wheels of the German, Rosberg moved to the right causing the charging Hamilton to take to the grass. With no grip the Briton spun, hitting the rear of his teammate's car in the process and sending them both into the gravel.

In the immediate aftermath, Niki Lauda blamed Hamilton for the incident. Saying it was "unacceptable", he argued that Rosberg was a racer and was duty bound to close the door.

Team boss Toto Wolff, appearing to take the First Amendment, opted not to apportion blame on either driver, instead waiting to hear the stewards verdict and examine all available evidence.

"The incident concerned started when Car 6 (Rosberg) dropped into an incorrect power mode, as set by the driver prior to the start," said the stewards. "This created a significant power differential between Car 6 and Car 44 (Hamilton) at the exit of Turn 3 coming onto the straight, resulting in as much as a 17kph speed difference between the two cars on the straight.

"Car 6 moved to the right to defend his position, as is his right under Art 27.7 of the Sporting regulations. Simultaneously Car 44 as the significantly faster car with, at that time, apparent space on the inside, moved to make the pass.

"Art 27.7 requires the leading driver to leave room, if there is a "significant portion" of the car attempting to pass alongside. Car 44 had a portion of his front wing inside Car 6 small fractions of a second prior to Car 44 having to leave the right side of the track to avoid an initial collision, which may have led him to believe he had the right to space on the right. Once on the grass on the side of the track Car 44 was no longer in control of the situation.

"Having heard extensively from both drivers and from the team, the Stewards determined that Car 6 had the right to make the maneuver that he did and that Car 44's attempt to overtake was reasonable, and that the convergence of events led neither driver to be wholly or predominantly at fault, and therefore take no further action."

On hearing the stewards decision Rosberg said: "The stewards have said it is a racing incident which we have to accept. The stewards' decision is the stewards' decision, we leave it at that. That's the verdict."

"I'm not going to get into that," replied Hamilton, when asked who he thought was to blame. "I want to make an apology to all of our team," he continued. "When I stopped my heart just sank because there's thirteen hundred-odd people in our team who all work so hard for us to be here. To not deliver for them, it's honestly indescribable how gutted I was.

"I was catching him and he wasn't on the racing line, he was on the inside, slightly to the right. But the gap to the left was much smaller than the one to the right so I went for the right. There was a gap there and as a racing driver when you are going 17kms faster you go for the gap."

"I'm going to try to move forward, and to let the team know I'm going to do all I can to make sure it doesn't happen again."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by F1 Yank, 16/05/2016 16:35

"This incident was all Hamilton. ROS made a great move to get by Hamilton. Hamilton did appear to have quite a bit of speed on that short straight going into turn 3 but if you don't have the room when ROS closed the door HAM should have backed out. As far as I know, if you rear end someone, whether you have control of your car or not, it is YOUR fault. HAM has done this several times to ROS and it did not end this way. How many times have we seen Michael Schumacher close the door this aggressively? When you are in front, you are not too worried about what happens to the car behind, if you are planning on leading. It is about time ROS started to be this aggressive. With the speed that HAM had, he could have setup a pass on the front straight or when the DRS was enabled. HAM obviously lost his composure, and caused a bloody shemozzle."

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2. Posted by Spindoctor, 16/05/2016 12:06

"I do blame Nico
After using his battery to boost past Hamilton he seriously (and knowingly) compromised his speed into the following section. It was almost inevitable that Hamilton would overtake, he was a LOT faster. It's clear from the on-board that Hamilton thought about going round the outside, but dived down the inside, presumably assuming Nico would force him off the track if he went to the outside. Rosberg"shut the door", but Hamilton was already over the threshold, and tried to avoid a crash by going onto the grass....

A top-quality F1 driver would have been aware of where Lewis was, and known that he needed some room. An intelligent driver would have worked-out that forcing Lewis onto the grass seriously risked being taken-out himself (hint: brakes don't work when car on grass!).

Nico's "laid-down a marker", all right: his "machismo quotient" might have been raised, but at the cost of confirming he's not much of a racer, and can't take the pressure of going wheel-to-wheel. with someone who is. Ferrari & RBR's pace may not yet be equal to Mercedes, but they're closing slowly and Rosberg's carelessness has let them close the points gap significantly. It's still huge, but a couple more DNFs .....

"

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3. Posted by VC10-1103, 16/05/2016 10:35

"I think Nico has laid down a marker for Lewis. There have been several occasions in the past where Lewis has tried to muscle his way past Nico and Nico has given way. Lewis will now be a bit more circumspect before he does it again."

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4. Posted by Tom2681, 16/05/2016 9:11

"@Mike:
The driver who's in front goes wherever he wants to go. He is allowed to defend his position.
Lewis wasn't alongside, therefore didn't deserve a car's width.

I don't blame Lewis though. It was a clumsy maneuver from both drivers."

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5. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 16/05/2016 8:49

"What has not been mentioned here is another track you cannot overtake on, making the start and opening few corners even more critical to gain position. "

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6. Posted by mike, 16/05/2016 0:47

"Bullshit! Why was Nico all the way to the right side of the track when the line is the left.....100% Nico's fault WOW..."

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7. Posted by sumpnz, 15/05/2016 23:10

"5th Amendment is the right to stay silent. 1st is freedom of speech, religion, peaceable assembly, and to petition for redress of grievances."

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8. Posted by The Canadian, 15/05/2016 21:42

"Lol Roberg is still jazzed at Lewis for being faster than he is. Good driver but can't handle pressure. Lada is still an asshat"

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Stewards declare Mercedes clash a "racing incident"

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