Nico Rosberg downplays title 'match point' scenario in Mexican GP

Nico Rosberg downplays the possibility of winning the title in Mexico.

Nico Rosberg can win the World Championship with a victory in Mexico City, but inevitably the German has played down the possibility.

Rosberg’s 26-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton means that if he wins and his rival fails to score, he will be 51 points ahead with only 50 to be won in the last two races.

“Of course I’m aware of that, it’s an obvious calculation that everyone is telling me,” he said. “It’s great, I’m excited to be in the championship battle at the end of the year, it’s awesome. I couldn’t ask for more at the moment. But for me the approach is keep it simple, it works best, it’s how I feel best, so look for the race win, concentrate on what’s at hand for the weekend. I’ll go to Mexico fully focused, and that’s it. Very simple.”

Rosberg lost out at the start in Austin when Daniel Ricciardo managed to get down the inside into Turn One, but later a stop under the Virtual Safety Car allowed him to jump the Red Bull driver.

“I got away really well. Not quite enough to give it a go down the inside, so Lewis would just have closed, so no point in trying that, so I just went round the outside. All was looking good, actually, I just struggled for a bit of grip then out of the corner and Daniel had that extra grip, and that’s it. We knew that that was going to be a risk with that supersoft. Then flat out after that and it worked out of course with the VSC.

“I just feel that it’s a pity that it didn’t work out with a win this weekend. I was going for that. It would have been awesome here in America but it didn’t work out. Lewis did a great job this weekend, all the way through, qualifying and race so it just wasn’t to be. I’ll live with second place now and next race is another great opportunity.”

Victory for Nico Rosberg but Lewis Hamilton heroic in third

A jubilant Lewis Hamilton hailed his record-breaking drive at the Belgian Grand Prix as the best result he could have hoped for after storming from the back of the pack to the podium.

While Nico Rosberg sealed his sixth victory of the year to move to within nine points of Hamilton, it is the latter who will head to Monza for next week’s Italian Grand Prix with the broader smile on his face after he finished in third. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo split the Mercedes drivers following another exemplary performance.

Hamilton was thrown to the back of the grid after he was forced to serve a penalty following a number of engine changes in Belgium. But the world champion took advantage of a chaotic opening eight laps, with Max Verstappen and the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen involved in a first-corner collision, as well as a horror crash for Kevin Magnussen, who lost control of his Renault at 180mph through the notorious Eau Rouge corner. Jenson Button also retired after he was punted out of the race by rookie Pascal Wehrlein.

Magnussen walked away from the jaw-dropping smash with only a cut to his ankle and, with the race red flagged, Hamilton suddenly found himself in fifth place. Simple moves on Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg followed as the world champion became the first driver in the history of the famous race to finish in the top three after starting from such a lowly grid position.

“If I had known this was going to happen, I would have had an even better summer,” said Hamilton.

“I woke up this morning knowing how difficult things were going to be, but you can never predict what is going to happen.

“In previous races, there have been no incidents and today there was. It was about trying to have the right approach — not too aggressive and not too easy — and collectively as a team we had the right balance. This is the best result I could have hoped for.”

Pole-sitter Rosberg retained his lead on the short run down to the La Source hairpin as chaos broke out behind him.

First, a slow-starting Verstappen — in front of an army of Dutch supporters — was gobbled up by the Ferrari duo of Vettel and Raikkonen before Vettel turned into his team-mate, with Raikkonen then bumping into Verstappen. Vettel spun, while both Raikkonen and Verstappen limped back to the pits with a left-rear puncture and front-wing damage respectively.

“I think turn one was more important (than the red flag) because it wiped out three of our direct competitors,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

“What looked to be a disadvantage turned out to be much less detrimental to (Hamilton’s) campaign and he added his bit with a great drive. The championship has been bouncing a bit in both directions and it is going to go long in the season before we know which way it is going to go.”

Rosberg would have hoped to be within touching distance, if not ahead of Hamilton, following his penalty. as it stands, the latter remains the firm favourite to claim his third successive title and fourth in all.

Rosberg joked: “After the chequered flag I looked at the results. I knew Daniel was behind me, but then I saw Ham in P3 and I was like, ‘What?’ ‘Seriously?’”.

Nico Rosberg not thinking about shrinking championship lead

Nico Rosberg insists he is not concerned by the speed at which Lewis Hamilton has managed to slash his lead in the drivers' championship to one point.

Rosberg was 43 points ahead of Hamilton following the collision between the two at the Spanish Grand Prix in May, but in the space of five races his lead has been cut to just one point. Yet Rosberg, who won the opening four races of the season, refuses to look at the the first half of the year as an opportunity lost.

"Well it's very easy, I can make the choice of taking the glass half-empty view on it, or of taking the glass half-full view of it which has been a very good first half of the season and leading the championship," he said. "It's been a pretty damn good start to the season which I'm pleased about.

"I've had some good races, I had a good race in Austria which went wrong, yeah it can happen and then a good run out there in the dry at Silverstone -- not so much in the beginning of the race -- but there's a lot of positives.

"Anyway, I'm feeling great and the battle is on with Lewis, I'm not counting points because it's still such a long way to go and I don't like to do that."

Asked why he was unable to match Hamilton at the last race at Silverstone, Rosberg added: "In the race nothing was lacking I was really feeling great. I have the fastest lap of the race by some margin as well, I was feeling great.

"What was lacking was that Red Bull that was in front of me for a few laps and then I lost a bit in the wet phase in the first part of the race, that's it. And qualifying he just did a good job."

Mercedes-GP and Nico Rosberg not ‘flirting’ with other options, according to Toto Wolff

MONTREAL // Mercedes-GP and Formula One world championship leader Nico Rosberg want to continue together and neither party is “flirting" with alternative options as contract talks continue, according to team chief Toto Wolff.

Rosberg, 30, will be out of contract at the end of the season and is now in his seventh season with Mercedes, having joined the current champions in 2010 after they took over the Brawn team.

Wolff said the fact a new contract had yet to be agreed would not be a distraction for the team or driver as they fight for the title, and there was no hurdle delaying completion.

“It is not a type of instability as we would like to continue in the same way with Nico as we did," the Austrian told reporters at the Canadian Grand Prix.

“It is down to the detail in the contract. It is pretty normal negotiations. We are not flirting somewhere else and he is not flirting somewhere else, that is why it is not a distraction."

Rosberg won the last three races of 2015 and first four of this season. However he has not been on the podium in the last two grands prix, and saw his overall lead shrink to 24 points ahead of Montreal.

Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has beaten Rosberg to the last two titles, agreed a new deal last year and has a contract till the end of 2018.

Hamilton’s contract negotiations were similarly protracted.

Andrew Mulligan: Being No 1 has its ups and its downs

There's a slippery slope for those on top.

Dangerous metre eater Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is nursing his injured knee. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Who on Earth would want to be No1? Leicester City do. They won the English Premier League with two games to spare and, despite the best efforts of Spurs to catch them, the Foxes of the Midlands can thank former No1, Chelsea, for ruining Tottenham's chances.

The Kiwis league team are No1 in the world but their line-up is missing a lot of No1 selections tonight in Newcastle.

The No1 metre eater in the NRL through seven weeks isn't there and although Roger Tuivasa-Sheck will be missed, you wonder if he's thinking about the No1 sport in the country and joining Super Rugby in two-and-a-half years.

The Chiefs are No1 but will be in a dog fight with the Highlanders in Hamilton tomorrow night as they scrap for the underdog title of New Zealand while the undisputed No1 franchise in Super Rugby of all time is flying under the radar and hosting the Reds in Christchurch tonight.

The No1 team in T20 cricket is New Zealand because their strong and steady play is down to the No 1 belief that you don't get too high when you win and too low when you lose.

The No1 team in Madrid can't even beat their poor little brother in La Liga but you'd think they'd be the favourites in the Champions League final with a full squad and the No1 goal scorer of all time in Europe, Cristiano Ronaldo. Atletico Madrid are there to ruin the rich boy, Galacticos party and Atletico manager Diego Simeone is more than happy to have a "scowl off" with Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.

Who'd want to be the No1 heavyweight fighter in the world when you have to fight Tyson Fury and when you lose to the Gypsy King, you then have to go through another verbal barrage while awaiting a rematch.

Thank goodness for impending world No1, Anthony Joshua, for his thoughtful and respected views on the heavyweight division and the potential No1 pay-per-view event in New Zealand when he hopefully fights Joseph Parker.

Lewis Hamilton used to be No1 and isn't used to being No2 in his team this Formula One season.Being on Hamilton's side of the garage wouldn't be much fun as he is having mechanical issues and expecially after the No1 driver in the world, Nico Rosberg, cleaned up again in Russia with his seventh win in a row.

Steph Curry, the No1 basketball shooter of all time, is having problems with his knee. A dodgy MCL is barely hampering the run of the Golden State Warriors but at least his gimpy ankle is getting a rest.

Cedric Jackson is used to having ankle problems and now the bigger problem for the Breakers is to find someone who would be the No1 point guard for their team after Jackson is set to explore the free agent market in the Australian NBL.

And all of this is why sport is No1 to us all.

Lewis Hamilton ‘excited’ by prospect of Bahrain GP battle with Nico Rosberg and Ferrari

Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has said he relishes the prospect of another wheel-to-wheel scrap with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg and the Ferrari team at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 31, who finished second behind Rosberg at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, has been involved in previous thrilling and close battles with the German at the Bahrain International Circuit.

And he fought back after a bad start in Australia to help Mercedes deliver a one-two at the opening race after a fight to catch and overhaul the Ferrari drivers, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel and the Finnish 2007 title-winner Kimi Raikkonen.

“I’m excited by the thought that there will be more races like Melbourne," Hamilton said.

“We know there are going to be weekends where we are a few seconds up the road ahead of the Ferrari (team), races where it’s wheel to wheel and some races where they might be ahead.

“At the moment, we really don’t know what lies ahead and that makes it exciting. Bahrain has been very entertaining for the past two seasons so more of the same would be great for everyone."

Vettel and Raikkonen made the most of slow starts by the two Mercedes men in Melbourne to take control of the race and lead for more than half of the distance before they were reeled in — partly due to tyre strategy decisions — and overhauled.

This weekend, Ferrari expect to be stronger still and may have a good early opportunity to break the Mercedes grip on early-season victories.

“We’ve stepped up our game once again this year, but Ferrari were a real threat all weekend in Melbourne and it’s clear that we’ve got a big battle on our hands," Rosberg said.

“I’ve had some great battles in Bahrain in the last two years, with Lewis and the Ferraris, so I’m expecting more of the same and looking forward to that."

Team chief Toto Wolff confirmed that Mercedes fear Ferrari more than ever this weekend, but said that he was as worried about the sport’s image and the likelihood of another fiasco in qualifying on Saturday.

A new format of ‘progressive elimination’ in which a driver was knocked out every 90 seconds resulted in near-uproar in Melbourne when the session ended without a car on the track.

An immediate unanimous decision by the teams to revert to the former system of qualifying, in three timed mini-sessions without individual eliminations, failed to gain the full support of the F1 Commission.

As a result, the much-maligned new format will be used again in the hot and dry conditions at the Bahrain track at Sakhir, 30 kilometres south-west of the island capital Manama.

“The teams were unanimous in their opinion of it in Melbourne — and it wasn’t positive," Wolff said.

“We haven’t found the right format with this change and it’s hard to see how it might be more entertaining for the fans this weekend in Bahrain.

“The sport is under scrutiny on this matter, so careful thought is required to make coordinated, intelligent steps forward from the position we are in.

“The fans want close racing in a format they can understand between the best drivers and cars in the world, in that order. We should be capable of delivering that."

Since the Australian race, the drivers have voiced their concerns at the knee-jerk decision-making system and called for an overhaul of the administration of the sport.

In an open letter, the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) said the rules structure was “obsolete" and in need of reform — a position that was quickly supported by F1’s veteran commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone.

As the circus flies in to Bahrain, there will be as much attention paid — once again — to the politics in the paddock and beyond as the action out on track.

Look who's back: Holidays over for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

Signalling the end of their winter holidays, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have returned to work for Mercedes - starting with a media event in Geneva.

Both the F1 world champion and his Mercedes team-mate attended the IWC 'Come Fly With Us' Gala Dinner on Tuesday.

Prior to Tuesday's launch, Hamilton's last public appearance for Mercedes was at the team's Stars and Cars event in Stuttgart on December 12.

While Rosberg has kept a low profile since the end of the 2015 season, Hamilton has delivered a steady stream of social media updates charting his travels. The F1 world champion has spent much of the winter skiing in Colorado but has more recently spent time in Los Angeles and Mexico before returning to Europe a month before the start of pre-season testing on February 22.

Hamilton and Rosberg have won 32 of the last 38 races but both drivers were warned last month by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff that they could be dropped if they do not learn to co-exist.