Mercedes in turmoil after worst finish for five years, google, Uganda, Monitor, New Vision

Barcelona-For the first time in more than five years, the Mercedes team on Monday flew home without a finisher, and pointless, following Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s opening-lap collision in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The team also had to cope with an unwanted collective headache, one that felt familiar after the acrimony of 2014, and had to face a new challenge as Formula One hailed a new youngest race winner in Dutch teenager Max Verstappen.

The crash ended championship leader Rosberg’s winning streak -– four races this year and seven in all -– and delivered Mercedes’ first non-finish since the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, but, worse than that, it reopened a divide between the drivers.

The tension and emotion was palpable on Sunday night when they spoke to reporters after being cleared of blame for what the race stewards described as a “racing incident”.

Each driver seemed to blame the other, without clear articulation of those feelings, during a clumsy staged news briefing that barely papered over the cracks in a team likely to face more pressure ahead from the improving Ferrari and Red Bull outfits.

Hamilton said he had apologised to the team, but he did not accept blame for attempting to pass Rosberg on the inside at Turn Four. Rosberg, who conceded that his engine was not in the correct mode, said he moved to defend his position and was surprised by Hamilton.

Team chief Toto Wolff, following the line of the stewards’ decision, attempted to provide some diplomatic objectivity. Each driver feels he is not entirely faultless, he said.