The Lewis Hamilton fans who are conspiracy theorists could easily have taken the congratulatory words that Paddy Lowe, the executive director of Mercedes-GP, said to Nico Rosberg the wrong way.
Rosberg was on his slowing down lap and returning to the pits after dominating Sunday's Russian Grand Prix when Lowe came on the pit radio to say: "Excellent drive, excellent drive Nico. Well done, we've finally done it in Russia."
Now, if you really wanted to take that out of context as a Hamilton supporter, you would point out that it is not the first time that Mercedes have done it in Sochi.
They were successful there in both 2014 and 2015, with Hamilton winning those races.
Now, clearly Lowe was not ignoring his own team’s past achievements in praising Rosberg, he was highlighting the fact it was the first time the German had won there in their car.
But, it does in many ways sum up the situation that Hamilton finds himself in at present. Namely in serious danger of becoming the forgotten man in the drivers’ championships.
Hamilton may have won the past two championships, but Rosberg is the form man.
• More Russian Grand Prix: Full race report | Report card
He is the first driver to win the opening four races of a season in 12 years, and his victory streak now stretches to seven races, including the final three races of 2015.
History is against Hamilton as no driver who has ever started a season with four triumphs has not gone on to be champion.
Hamilton has regularly talked about loving a challenge. Well he has got one now, trailing Rosberg by 43 points.
There was a lot for the triple world champion to be upbeat about on Sunday, however.
Second was the best he could realistically hope for, barring mechanical dramas for Rosberg, as he started down in 10th after an engine problem meant he did not set a lap time in the final part of qualifying.
Yes, he still lost a further seven points to Rosberg in the standings, but it could have been a lot worse.
Hamilton made another poor getaway at the start of the 53-lap race and that ironically helped him.
Had he got off the line well, there is a strong chance he would have been in the thick of the incident at Turn 1 that saw Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull Racing car badly misjudge his braking, and hit the back of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.
The cars were both damaged in the impact, and Vettel was pushed into the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, giving the Australian damage that required a trip to the pits for repairs too.
Kvyat and Vettel would then make contact again, sending the Ferrari crashing into the wall and out of the race.
Hamilton, thanks to his tardy start, was able to avoid the impact and the debris.
He gained from the chaos to move upto fifth, and overtaking the two Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, got him upto second by mid-distance.
Hamilton was 14 seconds behind Rosberg when he got upto second, and typically of the Briton’s tenacious spirit he had got the gap down to 7.7 seconds before concerns with the water pressure on his W07 chassis caused him to back off and settle for the 18 points that being runner-up got him.
Of his charging drive, he said post-race: “There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I could win it.
“I had the pace, but then I had a problem with the engine again and had to back off.”
Hamilton himself played down the conspiracy theories about all the mechanical setbacks happening on his side of the garage.
“It’s not happened in the last three years and I have no reason to think that’s happening now,” he said of any fears the team were favouring Rosberg.
Having led by 29 points with seven races to go in 2014 and still missed out on the title to Hamilton, Rosberg is not taking anything for granted despite the fact that Hamilton can win the next six races and still not be leading the standings if Rosberg is runner-up each time.
“It’s four races from 21 – Lewis is going to come back of course,” Rosberg said.
“He’s on it and as motivated as ever. We have an incredible car and we just want to win races.”
Everything is going Rosberg’s way and it has been a dream start to the year for him.
Some of Hamilton’s problems have been self-inflicted, his poor starts in Australia and Bahrain, and yes, he has had bad luck in the past two races, but that is not Rosberg’s fault.
He has not put a wheel wrong and it is not hard to see why all the attention at Mercedes is on him right now.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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