Mercedes chiefs Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff on Sunday disagreed over the sensational first-lap crash in Barcelona.

As the stewards looked into Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's crash, team chairman and Formula 1 legend Lauda pointed the finger at the reigning triple world champion.

"For me, unacceptable. First of all we must talk to Lewis, because Nico was defending his lead," Lauda told German television in Spain.

Wolff disagreed, declaring that it was in fact a "racing incident".

The stewards agreed, and Hamilton told reporters that Rosberg was correcting an underpowered engine setting when he dove into the diminishing gap.

As for who was most to blame, Hamilton said: "I'm not going to get into it.

"But as I said, huge apologies to the team and I'll do everything to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Rosberg also apologised but he hinted he was unhappy with Hamilton's move.

"The stewards' decision is the stewards' decision and so I go with that verdict," said the German.

Told that it it sounds like he blames Hamilton, Rosberg insisted: "I didn't say that."

Wolff explained: "It's not a situation where you can attribute 100% of the blame to either one of the drivers.

"Niki Lauda's driver perspective means he has an opinion. This is his instinct and that's fair enough."

Lauda said that he accepted Hamilton's apology.

"For me it's relatively easy - Lewis apologised, which is fine for me so it's done and we think about the future," he said.

Wolff, meanwhile, allayed fears that the crash could cause Mercedes to end its current policy of allowing the drivers to freely race.

"We won't change our approach," said Wolff. "We owe it to F1 and to the fans to let them race. We let the drivers race and sometimes this can happen."

The race was won by Max Verstappen on his Red Bull debut.