MONTREAL, Canada -- Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says it is down to his drivers to avoid collisions after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg tapped wheels on the opening lap of the Canadian Grand Prix.
A poor start for Hamilton saw him passed by Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari at Turn 1 and come under pressure from teammate Rosberg. Rosberg tried to pass around the outside of Hamilton but was squeezed wide and the pair made light contact before Rosberg had to take to the run-off area.
The sequence of events dropped Rosberg to ninth place, while Hamilton lost time to Vettel in the opening lap before going on to win the race. The incident comes just two races after the Mercedes drivers crashed out of the race on the opening lap in Spain, but while Wolff said the racing in Canada was "hard" he made clear that it would not change the team's policy of allowing its drivers to race.
"The question is how much can you really manage it from the outside?" he explained. "Turn 1 in Canada is a difficult one and there is a concrete run-off area. If there is a wall then probably we would not have the discussion. But then if you are on the inside you dictate the line.
"It was a hard manoeuvre. Lewis said that he had understeer, that's what I would say. From the team's perspective if you're starting one and two and you come out of Turn 1 two and nine that is not pleasant. But I guess I have a deja vu, we are having these discussions after every race..."
Ultimately the collision stemmed from a poor start by Hamilton, which allowed Vettel and Rosberg to challenge heading into Turn 1. The tardy getaway was traced to an overheating clutch on Hamilton's car and Wolff said the team would investigate why its starts were so poor compared to Ferrari's.
"Well we have invented rules to make the starts more unpredictable and we had a couple of really great ones in the last races. This time it wasn't great and we have to analyse what it was, whether it was the temperature lacking in the tyre or whether Ferrari just had a much better start today so you just have to accept it.
"I think it was just the clutch slipping today and not getting it 100% there. The initial getaway from Ferrari looked great so maybe they have some kind of whatever. We have to look at it."