YOU’RE SELFISH!
Nico fury at winner Lewis for ‘go-slow’
NICO ROSBERG was brooding, his face stony, his eyes fixed on the middle distance and his fingers intermittently clapping in anger.
He was sitting next to Lewis Hamilton — as close as the German had got to his Mercedes team-mate all afternoon of the Chinese Grand Prix — at a postrace press conference fizzing with recriminations. Rosberg, whose usual coiffured, Euro- chic sheen had vanished, alleged that Hamilton had selfishly tried to spoil his race.
The record states that Hamilton won, Rosberg was second and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third. But Rosberg feared he might be overtaken by Vettel before the second round of pit stops when Hamilton, then leading from pole position, slowed down a few fractions of a second — to conserve his tyres, he said.
Rosberg asked the team to get Hamilton to speed up, an instruction they issued and one with which the Briton complied. ‘I wasn’t controlling his race; I was controlling my own race,’ said Hamilton, indignantly. ‘I had no real threat from Nico.’
But Rosberg said: ‘It’s interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace. That opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit-stop to try and jump me.’
Hamilton countered: ‘My job is to manage the car and bring the car home as fast as possible and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow the cars up.’
Boys, boys. It took a little longer last season for the old karting friends to sling so much mud in public. We are only three races into a 19-round saga and the brickbats and mutual suspicions are already tumbling out.
It was easy to sympathise with Rosberg but difficult to agree with him. Even though he was somewhat stronger here than during the opening two race weekends, he must be reaching his wits’ end, frustrated to distraction, wondering how on earth he can possibly beat Hamilton when he is on form.
It seems, to this cod psychologist, that it was Rosberg’s deep exasperation that led him to behave as he did.
Niki Lauda, the Mercedes chairman, came to his not guilty verdict immediately after the race. ‘We have first and second,’ said the three-time world champion.
‘I don’t care if there is a quarrel, as long as Vettel is only third. One thing is clear: Lewis had pole and controlled the race from beginning to the end. There’s nothing more to say. True, Lewis will drive selfishly. These guys are egocentric b******s. It is the only way to win the championship, and Nico is the same if the s*** hits the fan. Lewis was better this weekend.
‘There is no friendship out there. When you race you have to fight, that’s it.’
For Hamilton it was a fourth victory at this extravagant confection of a track, the circuit where he suffered one of the blackest moments of his rookie season, ending up in a gravel trap, his championship hopes devastated in 2007.
He again finished the race at a relatively low speed as marshals failed to clear Max Verstappen’s crippled Toro Rosso. The safety car came out. Anti-climax though it was, a giant roar erupted from the 29,000-strong main grandstand as the chequered flag was waved for Hamilton.
He was congratulated over the radio for having ‘the full house’: pole, fastest lap and race win. It was a flawless performance.
The race posed many tantalising questions. The first was whether Ferrari could match Mercedes in the temperate Shanghai climate, as they managed in Malaysia a fortnight ago?
They were some way off in the end but clearly close enough to spook Rosberg. They will keep Mercedes on their toes, and that is balm for the sport.
Hamilton, who has provided emphatic answers to every question asked of him since taking last year’s title, made the perfect start. He inclined his car right on the grid, covering Rosberg next to him, before darting through the first, right-hand corner in front. Contest over before it started.
An honourable mention for 17-year-old Verstappen, who drove his Toro Rosso with great elan. He put his car down the inside of Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber, causing Max’s father and former racer Jos to exhale in relief as he watched the dangerous move from the garage. He then applauded in admiration.
Alas, Verstappen’s engine gave up on him and he left his machine parked on the start-finish straight.
Red Bull’s woes continued with Daniil Kvyat’s Renault engine billowing grey smoke into the Shanghai air. Their other car, driven by Daniel Ricciardo, was ninth.
McLaren were even less successful than Red Bull, again. Jenson Button was demoted a place to 14th, having collided with Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus.
Button’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was 12th after being lapped by Vettel, his replacement at Ferrari. Vettel was smiling afterwards, but not as widely as Hamilton.
WHAT NICO SAID ‘Interesting to hear you were just thinking about yourself with the pace.’
WHAT LEWIS SAID ‘I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own.’