No penalties for 'racing incident' Hamilton/Rosberg collision

Hamilton and Rosberg took each other out of the race at Turn 4 as they battled for the lead, with Hamilton getting out of shape on the grass when Rosberg attempted to defend the inside line.

Rosberg suffered a loss of power through Turn 3 because he started the race in the wrong engine mode, giving Hamilton a big speed advantage on the run to the next corner.

The stewards determined both drivers had acted within the regulations.

"Car #6 moved to the right to defend his position, as is his right under art 27.7 of the sporting regulations," said an FIA statement.

"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."

The two drivers accepted the verdict.

"The stewards' decision is the stewards' decision, we leave it at that. That's the verdict," said Rosberg.

When asked if he blamed Hamilton for the incident, Rosberg added: "I didn't say that. I'm saying that I will go with the verdict of the stewards."

On the subject of blame, Hamilton added: "I'm not going to get into that.

"Firstly, I want to make an apology to all of our team.

"When I stopped my heart just sank because there's 1300-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 [in Turn 3].

"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 17ks faster you go for the gap."

Rosberg felt he made it clear he was defending the inside line.

"I was aware of the situation and saw Lewis coming closer so I went for the usual racing driver reaction of closing the inside and closing the door as early as I could.

"For me it was a way of making clear I wasn't going to leave any space on the inside there and I was very surprised that he did go for the gap anyway.

"Overall I'm just extremely gutted, it was our race to win, all of us, and I'm also gutted for my colleagues.

"I'm aware of all the work everyone has put into these two cars and for us to end in the sand like that, that's as bad as it gets."