Mercedes feud between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton not like famous 1980s strife, Toto Wolff says

Lewis Hamilton’s rivalry with teammate Nico Rosberg is very different to Formula One’s famous 1980s feud between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said yesterday.

“It’s an intense relationship, but this intensity is normal,” the Austrian said on the team website after a weekend of team infighting in Monaco.

Rosberg won Sunday’s race to end Hamilton’s run of four wins in a row and seized the overall championship lead back from the Briton.

In pictures: Nico Rosberg wins the Monaco Grand Prix

However, the cracks in the relationship were more evident than ever, with Hamilton suggesting the German had deliberately denied him a chance to take pole position by running off track in the final seconds of qualifying.

Mercedes have started the season in dominant fashion with five successive one-two finishes in six starts, all from pole.

“We have seen a lot of talk about their relationship, but that’s not the key thing for a successful campaign,” Wolff said. “It’s a job, not a holiday, and the drivers need to work with and for the team, first of all.

“There have been a lot of comparisons to the Senna/Prost scenario, which is a kind of compliment to both Lewis and Nico. But the situation here is very different.

“The racing philosophy of Mercedes-Benz is to allow our drivers to compete. We let the boys play with their toys, unless they break them.”

Wolff said both knew the team would not tolerate any incident between them and reminded them they were representing nearly 300,000 Mercedes employees around the world.

Hamilton played up to the Senna references last weekend when he threatened after qualifying to take a leaf out of the late Brazilian’s book.

The remark was interpreted by some as referring to Senna’s title-deciding collisions with McLaren teammate Prost, but Sunday’s race passed without incident and Hamilton later told reporters he was joking.

“I was seriously joking. The priority is the team,” said the 2008 champion, who trails Rosberg by four points.

sports@thenational.ae

Follow our sports coverage on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE

RESULT

Aston Villa 1
Samatta (41')
Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')

Farage on Muslim Brotherhood

Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.

The biog

Name: Capt Shadia Khasif

Position: Head of the Criminal Registration Department at Hatta police

Family: Five sons and three daughters

The first female investigator in Hatta.

Role Model: Father

She believes that there is a solution to every problem

Mercedes feud between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton not like famous 1980s strife, Toto Wolff says

However, cracks in the relationship were more evident than ever, with Hamilton suggesting the German had deliberately denied him a chance to take pole position by running off track during qualifying for Monaco.

RESULT

Farage on Muslim Brotherhood

The biog