It may have been easy to miss, amid the slow starts to races and the mistake at the United States Grand Prix last month that cost him a victory, but Nico Rosberg has raised his game considerably to Mercedes-GP teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The only surprise was that Sunday’s win in Mexico came so long after the renaissance began with his pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix five weeks ago, which began a sequence of four in a row.
For so much of the season Rosberg has been put into the shade by Hamilton, but it has been qualifying that has really hurt the 30-year-old German driver.
In 12 of the first 13 races this season Hamilton took pole, and having track advantage has been crucial at the front; the new front wings designs on the 2015 cars have made it difficult to follow closely behind another car without increasing tyre wear on the fragile Pirelli compounds.
The statistics do not lie. On only four occasions this season in 17 races has the man not leading at the end of the opening lap not gone on to win.
Mexico was the fourth time this year that Rosberg had taken the lead at the start, and he controlled the race, just like he also did in Spain and Austria earlier in the year.
Crucially, the one he did not go on to win was Russia, and he had looked comfortable out front at Sochi until a mechanical problem ruined his race.
You get the picture. When Rosberg gets his nose in front he can dominate like Hamilton. His problem has been doing that, however.
First there was the poor pace in qualifying, then trying to convert it into track advantage at the start.
In Japan and the United States he got away slowly and allowed Hamilton to outmuscle him into Turn 1, and his start in Russia was not great either, but luckily neither was Hamilton’s.
On Sunday, however, he got it spot on and once in front he was able to cover Hamilton’s speed and lead throughout, other than during the pit stops.
This really should be a piece commenting on Rosberg winning his second race in a row, as he really should have won in the United States too.
He recovered after being pushed wide by Hamilton to eventually overtake him. He was the fastest driver in both wet and dry conditions at Austin, Texas, but he ran wide in the closing laps to gift Hamilton the lead. To add salt to the wound it gave his teammate his third drivers’ world title in the process.
Winning in Mexico was important for Rosberg. It demonstrated he does have the mettle to deal with Hamilton in a straight race.
It also put the mistake at Circuit of Americas out of his head at the first opportunity.
The title may have already been lost but the final two races of the year, in Brazil on November 15 and the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 29, are important to Rosberg’s future prospects.
If he can continue his current form and outperform Hamilton in both qualifying and the races then it would give him some momentum to take into the winter ahead of 2016.
Hamilton did considerable damage to Rosberg’s title hopes by starting this year so well, and the German cannot afford for that to happen again when the grid arrives in Australia next March.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
