After his victory in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton was asked repeatedly about the criticism of his driving in the race that had come from Mercedes-GP teammate Nico Rosberg.
In response, the Briton had remained passive. Then, as he spied Rosberg who was being interviewed a few yards away, he could not stop a sly grin coming over his face.
That grin said much because, not only had Hamilton won the 35th F1 grand prix of his career, he had also again got inside the head of the man that he expects to be the closest challenger as he battles to retain his drivers’ title.
The reigning world drivers’ champion controlled the 56-lap race in Shanghai from the start for his second win of the season to move 17 points clear of his teammate, who finished second, and 13 points clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was third.
It was a winning return to form for Mercedes after Vettel’s surprise victory in Malaysia two weeks ago, but the mood in the camp was far from happy as Rosberg lashed out at his teammate.
The German took umbrage with Hamilton’s slow pace in the part of the race after the first round of pit stops. The pair were running first and second, with Vettel only four seconds adrift.
Tyre conservation was always going to be a big factor and, considering how their inability to make their tyres last in Kuala Lumpur had ruined both drivers’ chances of winning, it was no surprise Mercedes were cautious with their speed.
Hamilton, then, had at that stage begun to nurse his tyres to prevent rapid degradation.
Consequently Vettel got within 1.5 seconds of Rosberg, who was two seconds behind Hamilton: the German claimed he was unable to challenge his teammate because of the fragility of the Pirelli tyres and how quickly they deteriorate when following another car closely.
Concerned by the sight of Vettel in his mirrors, Rosberg complained about Hamilton’s pace, resulting in the team telling the double world champion to get a move on.
Rosberg had to pit early for his final pit stop to prevent Vettel leapfrogging him and his mood would not have improved on hearing Hamilton suddenly found a second a lap in extra speed before his own final stop, demonstrating just how much the 30-year-old Briton had in reserve.
While Rosberg had successfully staved off Vettel, he made it clear he was unhappy with Hamilton after hearing the Briton had been pacing himself.
“It’s now interesting to hear from you Lewis that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace at the front,” he said.
“Unnecessarily, that was compromising my race, because driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant Sebastian was very close to me.
“That opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit stop to try to jump me, and then I had to cover him.
“First of all it was unnecessarily close with Sebastian and also it cost me a lot of race time as a result, as I had to cover him – and my tyres died at the end of the race because my stint was so much longer. So I’m unhappy about that.”
Hamilton said: “It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job is to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and fast as possible – that is what I did.
“I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up. I just focused on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could try, but he didn’t.”
The spat has reopened the rift from last year when both men tried to outmanoeuvre and, at times, out-psych one another as their battle for the title unfolded.
The team is sure to hold talks with the pair during the week leading up to next weekend’s race in Bahrain.
But it is clear the apparent thawing of their relationship, witnessed in Abu Dhabi last year, is at an end with Rosberg going public with his new grievances with his teammate.
It is also clear that neither can afford to make a mistake as Vettel is proving he has the pace to capitalise and can also apply enough pressure to cause the sort of frustration Rosberg showed yesterday.
There will be much interest at the Sakhir international Circuit this weekend, then, to see if Vettel and Ferrari can maintain their challenge as the latest chapter unfolds in the fractured relationship between Hamilton and Rosberg.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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