Mercedes: Rosberg fined and punished for Belgian GP incident

Ryan Joseph Ramos August 30, 2014

According to an official statement from Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, Nico Rosberg has been reprimanded for making contact with Lewis Hamilton’s car during the last race in Belgium.

The feud between the Mercedes drivers have gone from tolerable to very public and outright disastrous, coming to a head during the Belgian Grand Prix a weekend ago when Rosberg made contact with Hamilton’s car, sending the Brit limping off to the pits thanks to an unfortunate puncture in his rear tyre and to an eventual race retirement.

Here is an excerpt from the official, if vague, statement issued by Mercedes, which you can find here in full:

Suitable disciplinary measures have been taken for the incident.

Mercedes-Benz remains committed to hard, fair racing because this is the right way to win world championships. It is good for the team, for the fans and for Formula One.

One source even says that the German driver has been fined an undisclosed amount, but in six figures, as part of the punishment doled out.

With Hamilton out of commission, Rosberg was still able to finish second in the race and extend his lead over Hamilton to 29 points (220 to 191) with seven races left in the 2014 F1 season.

At the end of a two-hour meeting after which the statement was released, Hamilton and Rosberg were already saying all the right things.

“We win and we lose together and, as a team, we will emerge stronger,” said Hamilton. According to the team statement, both drivers will continue to race freely in the remaining races, and there’s no doubt Hamilton will try his best to bounce back and recover some ground in the drivers championship race.

Remember, the last race of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi is going to feature double points, so anything could still happen. We’re pretty sure this won’t be the end of the Rosberg-Hamilton rivalry, but we do hope that this will be the last serious incident between the two.

Be sure to check our coverage of next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix!