Rosberg cleared by race stewards

Nico Rosberg

Bahrain race stewards have cleared Nico Rosberg of dangerous driving during Sunday's grand prix and ruled no further action should be taken against the Mercedes driver.

Rosberg was put under investigation by race stewards at Sakhir for two separate incidents during the course of the 57-lap race for what to be appeared very robust defenses of position on the straight between turns three and four from Lewis Hamilton and then Fernando Alonso.

However, the stewards – Garry Connelly, Radovan Novak, Emanuele Pirro and Mazen Al Hilli – have now cleared Rosberg of all wrongdoing.

In their ruling over the incident with Hamilton, the stewards declared:

'1) The driver of Car 8 commenced his move to the right after the exit from T3 and moved to the right in a constant and continuous straight line manner, not making any sudden movements (as evidenced by telemetry and video evidence) and;

'2) At the time he commenced his move, Car 4 was behind him and no part of his car was alongside Car 8 and;

'3) The driver of Car 8 made the move to the right prior to the driver of Car 4 making the same move and;

'4) For more than half of the distance travelled by Car 8 in moving in a straight line towards the right hand edge of the track, Car 4 remained behind Car 8 and;

'5) Because the delta speed between the two cars was quite significant it was difficult for Car 8 to detect the exact position of Car 4 in relation to his own car;

'6) Had a significant portion of Car 4 been alongside that of Car 8 whilst Car 4 still remained within the confines of the track, then the actions of Car 8 may not have been considered legitimate.

'The Stewards, having heard from both drivers and team representatives Messrs R Meadows and S Michael, and having examined the video and telemetry evidence, unanimously decide to take no further action.'

In their ruling on the incident involving Rosberg and Alonso, the stewards declared:

'In relation to the incident involving Car 8 Nico Rosberg and Car 5 Fernando Alonso the Stewards, having heard from both drivers and team representatives Messrs R Meadows and M Rivola, and having examined the video and telemetry evidence, unanimously decided to take no further action.

'2) At the time he commenced his move, Car 5 was behind him and no part of his car was alongside Car 8 and;

'3) The driver of Car 8 made the move to the right prior to the driver of Car 5 making the same move and;

'4) For more than half the distance travelled by Car 8 in moving in a straight line towards the right hand edge of the track, Car 5 remained behind Car 8 and;

'5) Because the delta speed between the two cars was quite significant it was difficult for Car 8 to detect the exact position of Car 5 in relation to his own car;

'6) No part of Car 5 was alongside that of Car 8.'

Speaking about the incidents after the race live on Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle commented: "Nico was definitely over-aggressive at all times there."

"On Hamilton, I thought Nico's defense was much worse," added Damon Hill. "I think that he forced Hamilton off the road whereas with the Alonso incident I didn't think Alonso was alongside him when he moved across."

Rosberg, who had been recovering from a dismal first lap in which he dropped to ninth, battled back to finish fifth at the checkered flag.

Meanwhile, in a second incident that was under investigation post race, the stewards opted to take no further action against Ferrari for their release of Fernando Alonso from his final pit stop.