Hamilton and Rosberg collide at start of Spanish GP

40

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, taking both Mercedes drivers out of the race.

Rosberg took the lead with a good move around the outside of Turn 1 on the opening lap, with Hamilton looking to fight back on the approach to Turn 4. Rosberg moved to the inside to defend and Hamilton swerved to the right which left him on the grass. The defending champion lost control on the grass and slid sideways into Rosberg at Turn 4, wiping both cars out.

Hamilton had his head in his hands before his car had even come to a rest in the gravel, with neither driver speaking to each other after the incident and heading back to the paddock separately. The two drivers were then seen entering the Mercedes engineering truck with their helmets still on.

The incident brought out the safety car, with Daniel Ricciardo leading Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen at the time.

The collision will be investigated by the stewards after the race, with Mercedes' Niki Lauda apportioning the majority of the blame to Hamilton immediately after the incident.

LIVE: Spanish Grand Prix

Breakfast with ... Claire Williams

QUALIFYING REPORT: Hamilton leaves it late to take Barcelona pole

Romain Grosjean column: Spain will show the real Haas

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.