One clear fact came out from the idiotic final lap at the Austrian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is in Nico Rosberg’s head.
Why else would a driver with the experience and a 24-point championship lead as the German had, do what he did at the Red Bull Ring?
If you had asked him, as someone probably did, before the race if we would have taken second behind Hamilton starting from sixth, surely he would have said yes.
But after leading since the first round of pitstops I guess expectations changed.
Even so, if he had lost out to Lewis after a non-controversial overtake on the final lap, second place was still a good result.
OK his championship lead would have been cut to 17 points and losing to Hamilton would have probably raised some questions, but now he has even less of a lead and the same questions are now being asked.
Namely, can he really go wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton and ever come out on top?
We saw it at Spa two years ago and again in Spielberg as Rosberg tries to do a Hamilton on Hamilton.
So often Nico has aired his frustration about Lewis’ aggressive moves at the start and he tried to pull the same manoeuvre up at Turn 2.
We see many drivers do it nowadays when the car on the inside pushes the car on the outside out into the run-off area. Usually, both cars get round the corner but the inside car eases wide and forces the other car over the kerbs, losing grip and has to back out.
That’s what Hamilton more often than not does to Rosberg, but Rosberg’s actions on Sunday were far more extreme.
He blatantly ignored the apex giving Hamilton nowhere to go on the outside, before trying to cut back through the corner at the last moment.
Hamilton saw what was happening, turned in on Rosberg and that’s when the pair made contact.
If Nico had taken the corner normally, he could have easily still pushed Hamilton wide on the exit slowing the Brit’s momentum on the run to Turn 3.
But instead, ignoring claims of brake issues as made by the team, Rosberg felt the need to prove a point and it ended up backfiring.
The main question I would have regarding the incident is why? Why did Rosberg feel the need to fight it so hard? Why did he put his car in a position knowing more than likely it would end in a crash? None of it made sense.
It’s well known the difference in approach both men have towards racing. Rosberg is more studious and analytical while Hamilton is the flat-out, instinct racer.
Each has their own benefits but when it gets down and dirty Hamilton has always proven to be one of the best in the business.
For Rosberg to try and ‘out-race’ the racer puts him at a major disadvantage against Hamilton, and more often than not it has not worked.
If Rosberg stuck by his percentages and played to his strengths he would have probably backed out early to let Lewis through and pick up DRS for the next straight.
Ultimately that tactic wouldn’t have worked because of Perez’s crash at Turn 3 but then he probably wouldn’t have tried to run Hamilton off the road at Turn 2 if knew what was going on ahead.
All that is not to say Hamilton was 100% in the clear. Let’s not forget that he in effect made the race-winning move under yellow flag conditions, with the stewards clearly seeing that as acceptable given the pace Rosberg had slowed to with a damaged car.
Then there was the speed he rejoined the track at, almost driving straight into the side of his teammate.
But quite rightly Rosberg was blamed for the incident as a whole, and now, just when Hamilton had said the pair were back on good terms, the whole atmosphere at Mercedes will have plummeted once again.
There is talk of team orders, with Motorsport chief Toto Wolff understandably furious, but that shouldn’t have to happen with two drivers with a combined 19 years experience in the sport.
Rosberg is the man almost in the unfortunate position of being the teammate of the most talked about driver on the grid.
Austria was the result of falling foul of that fact. Therefore he needs to shut out the chaos across the garage and ignore the media baiting.
Do that and concentrate on doing things his way, that’s how he’ll be crowned champion in Abu Dhabi come November. If he ends up losing by less than five points he can look back at Turn 2 at where it all went wrong.
