Mercedes have confirmed Nico Rosberg was in the wrong engine setting when he crashed with Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix.
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There was absolute shock in the Mercedes team garage, as Daniel Ricciardo took the lead but was eventually beaten to the win by Max Verstappen – who become the youngest ever victor of a F1 race.
This had given defending three-time champion Hamilton a clear speed advantage on the run to Turn Four.
“I saw Lewis closing in and as soon as I could I closed the door with a clear strong move to make sure he understands that there’s not going to be space there”, said Rosberg.
Rosberg, who lost his first race of the season, said he is feeling extremely gutted not only for himself but also for his colleagues, saying that they deserved to win the race.
“When I came to a stop in the gravel trap, all I could think about was how gutted I was for the team, that’s where I feel the pain”, Hamilton said.
Verstappen’s maiden win on his Red Bull debut was the first in the sport by a Dutchman and the first by the team without Vettel involved in one of their cars.
The incident resulted in a battle for victory between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen going on to become the youngest driver in F1 history to win a race just 10 days after his promotion from Toro Rosso to the senior team.
Rosberg now holds a 39-point gap over Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the drivers’ standings, with Hamilton a further four points behind.
Hamilton: “It wasn’t a case of the door was closed and I made a decision to go across the grass”.
“We spoke to both drivers and they are of course annoyed with the situation”, Wolff said.
“There was a gap there and as a racing driver when you are going 17ks faster you go for the gap”.
Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided at Turn 4 in Spain, taking both Mercedes cars out of the race.
The Briton said later that the German, who was blamed by the team, had declared he had done it on goal.
Mercedes chief Niki Lauda immediately blamed Hamilton for the crash between his two drivers.
“It is stupid, we could’ve won this race”, Lauda told BBC Radio 5 live.
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Only one driver in the modern era has won eight consecutive races – Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, with nine in a row in 2013 for Red Bull – but Rosberg had hopes of continuing his run after winning at the circuit a year ago. ‘Lewis is too aggressive. I got there and I had part of my wing and part of my wheel alongside within the white line and then that diminished pretty quickly.
