Nico Rosberg took to his Facebook page today to publish a personal apology to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes after admitting fault for the collision at the start of last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Rosberg made contact with Hamilton on the second lap of the race, causing a puncture for Hamilton, ending the Brit’s race, and extending his championship lead by 29 points over Hamilton.
Rosberg and Hamilton were both summoned by the Mercedes team for a meeting on Friday with Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe in order to clear the air. During the meeting, Rosberg acknowledged his responsibility for the contact. The team took unspecified disciplinary action against Rosberg and stressed that it would not be imposing team orders to avoid a similar situation occuring and confirmed that the drivers were free to race but that future collisions between the team mates would not be tolerated.
Following the meeting, Rosberg published the following apology to Hamilton and the team, on his personal Facebook page:
‘In the days since the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what happened during the race and discussing it with the team.
‘I have already expressed my regret about the incident but, after meeting with Toto [Wolff], Paddy [Lowe] and Lewis today, I wish to go a step further and describe it as error of judgement on my part.
‘The number one rule for US as team-mates is that we must not collide but that is exactly what happened. For that error of judgment, I apologise to Lewis and the team. I also want to say sorry to the fans who were deprived of our battle for the lead in Belgium.
‘Lewis and I have been given clear instructions about how we race each other.
‘As drivers, we have a clear responsibility to the team, the fans of the sport, our partners and Mercedes-Benz to deliver clean racing. We take that responsibility very seriously.
‘I look forward to concluding the season with hard, fair competition on and off track right up to the final lap of the season in Abu Dhabi.’
Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas
