Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes opt not to take further action over Abu Dhabi

Mercedes have decided not to take action against Lewis Hamilton after he ignored team orders in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton was driving slowly to try to bring other drivers into the battle between himself and team-mate Nico Rosberg, who won the title by finishing in second place.

The team asked him to speed up, telling him he was putting the win at risk.

"In the heat of the moment, sometimes when you make decisions, you get them wrong," team boss Toto Wolff said.

"In our mind, the way we think, this race was giving us the same number of points as other races and we try to win that one - not considering that there was much more at stake for the drivers.

"How the race panned out, we should have communicated differently and in hindsight let them race in the way they deemed to be appropriate."

Wolff's remarks, in an interview with Sky Sports, draw a line under the controversy.

The Austrian had said after the race win Abu Dhabi that he would take his time to consider what to do about Hamilton's disobedience and that "everything is possible".

The team are still likely to discuss the issue with Hamilton at some point before the start of next season but there is no question of any disciplinary action being taken.

Those talks will focus on the fact that the team still have to come up with ways of managing potential situations where a driver's individual objective does not align with those of the team.

But in deciding to let the matter rest, Mercedes have effectively come to the conclusion that they did the wrong thing in Abu Dhabi for the right reasons.

Their team philosophy is always to try to score a one-two for the team if possible - and that Hamilton was putting that at risk backing Rosberg up into Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

But Wolff and executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe have accepted that it was not reasonable in the scenario of Abu Dhabi to make those calls.

The two drivers were competing for the title and nothing else significant at stake because the team had already won both championships and Hamilton's only way of winning the championship was to try to get Rosberg to finish lower than third.

The team have also taken into account the fact that Hamilton did not break any rules or drive in a dirty fashion.