Mercedes AMG Petronas

It took 182 days, but Nico Rosberg finally beat his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton again in a Formula One race on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Those six months must have felt like six years to Rosberg, who beat Hamilton at last year's Brazilian Grand Prix but then lost the title at the final race before finishing behind his British rival at the first four grands prix of 2015.

Rosberg's relief was evident after he qualified on pole for the Spanish race, held at the Catalunya circuit outside Barcelona. In the FIA press conference on Saturday, he said, "Of course I needed it sooner rather than later that’s for sure, that’s for sure because it’s just one step in the right direction to winning the race here this weekend."

He took the next step on Sunday, leading the race from start to finish, aside from a few laps around the pit stops. And Rosberg's victory from pole may be a larger step than it seems at first glance. Last year, he converted just three of his 11 poles into wins—a terrible pole-to-win conversion rate that helped cost him the championship.

But despite Rosberg's near-perfect weekend in sunny Spain, it is too early to call it a turning point in the 2015 season—or even to say that Rosberg is truly back in the title race.

Hamilton finished second, 18 seconds down the road, and it could have been closer. He closed to within 13 seconds in the final stint but appeared to back off near the end. Television viewers heard Hamilton's race engineer ask him over the radio to slow down and consolidate his position, but he did not sound ready to concede, asking repeatedly for explicit confirmation that it was impossible for him to catch Rosberg.

Rosberg did drive a flawless race and, coupled with his qualifying performance, showed that he is not willing to be relegated to a No. 2 role at Mercedes. Still, though, he needed some help to beat Hamilton, who made a poor start, got stuck behind Sebastian Vettel for much of the race and got held up in a very slow pit stop.

With his second-place finish, Hamilton still leads the drivers' table by 20 points over Rosberg. It would take three more weekends like Rosberg had in Spain for him to overtake Hamilton.

Hamilton did not sound worried in the post-race press conference, saying, "This is just a hiccup, I guess, this weekend."

Now, the F1 circus travels down the Mediterranean coast for the glamorous Monaco Grand Prix, where the Mercedes pair had one of their most controversial moments last year. During qualifying, Hamilton thought Rosberg intentionally compromised his final flying lap, giving Rosberg the all-important pole position in the tight streets of the principality.

Rosberg's manoeuvre helped him end a four-race Hamilton winning streak and retake the lead in the championship. In two weeks, Hamilton will be looking for payback as he tries to extend the gap to Rosberg in this year's title race back to more than 25 points—giving him a cushion in case of a mechanical failure or accident.

However, Rosberg, who grew up in Monaco, may hold an advantage there. He won the last two Monaco races and finished second in 2012. Hamilton has not won there since 2008 and, despite having cars capable of taking victory for most of his career, has just three podiums in eight Monaco Grands Prix.

"I know that I can rectify things at the next race and that's what I plan to do," Hamilton said on Sunday, per ESPN F1. "I've not won that race for a long, long time and this is going to be my third chance with this great team and with a great car. Hopefully third time lucky."

Regardless of what happens in Monaco, Rosberg's win in Spain is good news for F1 fans. It signals a rejuvenated title fight that was in danger of tilting too far in favour of Hamilton. Over the last two races, Rosberg has demonstrated the race craft that was missing at times last season.

Will it be enough to beat Hamilton over the course of a season, though? Well, the defending champ still has not finished lower than second in any race this year.

In Monaco, Hamilton can prove that the Barcelona weekend was indeed just a hiccup. Rosberg, meanwhile, will look to start a winning streak of his own.

It should be an interesting run from the starting grid down to the first corner, Sainte Devote.

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In 2014, Nico Rosberg headed to Europe while looking like a beaten man to all the world.

Despite inheriting a win at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which gave him a strong initial lead in the drivers' standings, the German had been comprehensively outperformed by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton across the first four race weekends of the year.

Hamilton bounced back from his early retirement at Albert Park to win the following three races in Malaysia, Bahrain and China, constantly eroding Rosberg's points lead and, indeed, his confidence.

Although Rosberg could occasionally give Hamilton a fright—pipping his team-mate to pole position in Bahrain before shadowing him throughout the race—each passing grand prix seemed to reinforce the idea that many, including even Rosberg himself, had always suspected.

That he was inferior. That he was second-best. That he was Mercedes' unofficial No. 2 driver. And, most worryingly, that he was no match for a driver of Hamilton's calibre.

Yet F1's return to Europe at the Spanish Grand Prix seemed to flick a switch. With three weeks to escape the rut and no doubt dissect just where it was all going wrong, Rosberg arrived at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a point to prove.

And though he finished second behind Hamilton for the fourth race in succession, losing the championship lead in the process, the Spanish GP—where he was quicker than his team-mate, hounding him all the way to the chequered flag—seemed to act as a springboard for a Rosberg resurgence.

Over the next seven races on European soil, the German took six pole positions and three victories, finishing off the podium only twice as his championship challenge regained momentum.

For much of that period it was he, not Hamilton, who could do no wrong, who (generally) benefited from good fortune and who looked increasingly worthy of a title triumph, so much so that by the end of the European season at September's Italian GP, Rosberg had a 22-point advantage over Hamilton.

Rosberg was the king of the continent.

Following the opening four events of the 2015 season—which has seen the German's status alongside Hamilton, again with three wins to his name at this early stage, questioned once more—it was imperative for Rosberg to raise his head and retain his throne.

And he made the best possible start to the European leg of the season on Saturday, securing an ultimately comfortable pole position in Spain, his second in three years at the Barcelona track.

PROVISIONAL GRID (FRONT):
1 ROS 2 HAM
3 VET 4 BOT
5 SAI 6 VES
7 RAI 8 KVY
9 MAS 10 RIC#SpanishGP #GPEspana #Quali pic.twitter.com/6ZqncEOJGZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 9, 2015

After spending the first part of the season trying to address his weaknesses of 2014, which only led to a loss of identity, Rosberg played to his strengths for the first time since last November's Brazilian GP, the scene of his most recent victory, and, tellingly, was rewarded with a first pole of the year.

It was a vintage Rosberg performance, one that saw the German gradually pressurise and chip away at Hamilton as the session progressed before producing the decisive lap when it really mattered, as evidenced by the gaps between the two drivers throughout qualifying.

Just 0.108 seconds adrift of Hamilton in Q1, according to the official Formula One website, Rosberg upped his pace to finish Q2 almost 0.6 seconds ahead of his team-mate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcOiIui1MBA

Perhaps startled by that deficit, Hamilton seemed to be lured into the trap of over-driving in Q3—Sky Sports' Anthony Davidson notes the reigning world champion was too hasty on the throttle on the exit of Turn 2 before locking up at Turns 5 and 10—which only played further into the hands of Rosberg, who sealed pole by 0.267 seconds, breaking Hamilton's 100 per cent record in qualifying in 2015.

Reverting to his 2014 form in qualifying may have worked handsomely for Rosberg on Saturday, but Sunday will put his supposedly new-and-improved approach in racing conditions to the ultimate test.

In the immediate aftermath of his title defeat to Hamilton in last season's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Rosberg, as per Sky Sports' Pete Gill and James Galloway, vowed to improve his performances in wheel-to-wheel battle after being passed by his team-mate with relative ease throughout 2014.

Hamilton's surge in form this season has meant the German has been unable to prove whether he has made any significant gains in this department; however, we did see flashes of promise in the Bahrain GP, where Rosberg overtook the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen with a series of forceful, assertive moves.

With Rosberg telling Sky Sports that Ferrari are unlikely to produce a serious threat to the Silver Arrows in Spain, the race is—as was the case throughout 2014—set to be a head-to-head fight between the Mercedes drivers, an examination of just how many lessons Rosberg has learned from last season.

In the buildup to the race weekend, Toto Wolff, Mercedes executive director, argued that his drivers—contrary to the 27-point difference between the pair—are closely matched this season. He told Autosport's Ian Parkes:

When you look at their performance in qualifying in China, for example, there were just four hundredths between them.

That is not someone (Rosberg) who is clearly beaten.

That is a tiny little edge which was enough for Lewis to make it on pole and control the race.

It could have been completely different if Nico had been on pole.

Finally with the advantage of pole, Rosberg now has a golden opportunity to exert some control of his own, to manipulate Hamilton's race and to return to winning ways.

Whether or not he can will determine if he can still produce a meaningful championship challenge in 2015, or if form, as they say, really is temporary.

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At last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton cruised to his third victory in four races this season. Meanwhile, his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, spent the evening battling the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

After the race, one of the talking points was that the television coverage seemed to miss some of the key moments and, in particular, that the Mercedes cars did not get much screen time.

"Inside the press room," wrote ESPN F1's Kate Walker, "the director's decision to avoid broadcasting footage of the Mercedes pair unless it was unavoidable to do so for the narrative of the race was so apparent that we took to shouting out every time a Silver Arrow appeared on-screen."

Meanwhile, longtime Formula One journalist Joe Saward wrote on his blog that "it is pretty hard to avoid showing the leader of a motor race, particularly if there is a fight going on at the front, but it was very definitely what some people thought as we watched Saubers when the battle at the front was tense and interesting."

The implication is either that Mercedes have been too dominant recently (they have won 19 of 23 races since the beginning of 2014) or that the team did something to anger F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone and therefore had their TV time cut.

Either theory is plausible: Few fans want to watch the same car touring around unchallenged each week, while Ecclestone's influence over all things F1 certainly encompasses the television broadcast, which is produced in-house by Formula One Management.

But despite plausible motives, is the premise actually true? Did Mercedes have less screen time in Bahrain than at previous races?

To answer that question, I grabbed my stopwatch and rewatched the last three grands prix—Malaysia. China and Bahrain—timing when a Mercedes car was featured on-screen. Before you see the (admittedly unscientific) results, here are a few notes.

The screen time was counted from the time the lights went out to start the race until the winner crossed the finish line on the final lap. Any time a Mercedes was featured on-screen, even in wide-angle shots, it counted as screen time—if it happened to be in the background while another car was being shown, it was not counted. Finally, shots of the Mercedes pit wall and garage also counted as screen time for the team.

Here are the results:

	Malaysian GP	Chinese GP	Bahrain GP
Amount of time on-screen	20:29	10:27	22:08
Percentage of race	20.3%	10.5%	23.3%

If there was any race where Mercedes were having their TV coverage limited, it was the Chinese Grand Prix, not Bahrain. In Shanghai, viewers saw the Silver Arrows for 10 minutes, 27 seconds, or about 10 percent of the race.

In contrast, at the Bahrain race, the Mercs were featured for nearly a quarter of the grand prix.

In Malaysia, Mercedes' first loss since Belgium last August, they featured in more than 20 percent of the broadcast. For comparative purposes, Ferraris were on-screen for just under 30 percent of the race, with Vettel taking the victory.

So what is going on?

It is clear that Mercedes' screen time was not cut in Bahrain—at least not relative to the two preceding races.

In China, though, Mercedes might have a legitimate complaint. Despite Hamilton leading the entire race, their cars were featured on the broadcast for about 10 minutes (and more than two minutes of that came once the safety car was called out and there was nothing to show but Hamilton taking the chequered flag).

Compare that with Sauber, which received almost five minutes of coverage just from Lap 41 to Lap 44 while Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson were battling Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, respectively, in the midfield.

Rather than attribute the Chinese coverage to a sinister motive, though, it seems there was just less exciting Merc-related action to show in Shanghai. In Bahrain, as mentioned, Rosberg spent a lot of the race fighting the Ferraris, while in Malaysia, Hamilton and Rosberg chased Vettel for most of the afternoon.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, the Mercs were relatively unchallenged on their way to a one-two finish.

Still, this storyline bears monitoring as the season progresses, particularly if the Mercs keep up their dominance. At this time, though, it is too early to say that their television coverage is being purposefully cut—and it certainly did not happen in Bahrain.

Follow me on Twitter for updates when I publish new articles and for other (mostly) F1-related news and banter: Follow @MatthewWalthert.

Nico Rosberg is facing a crossroads in his Formula One career. One path leads to race wins, title challenges and champagne; the other to the end of his days as an equal No. 1 at Mercedes.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton's flying start to the 2015 season has seen him win three of the first four races and finish second in the other. On each occasion, he has qualified ahead of Rosberg and comfortably beaten him in the race.

The gulf between the pair has been so great that many bookmakers on Oddschecker now list Rosberg as a huge 10-1 shot for the drivers' title.

Meanwhile, a Ferrari resurgence has seen Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen emerge as genuine threats to the previously all-conquering Mercedes team.

The points gap between Rosberg and Hamilton stands at 27 points after four races, with Vettel just one point further back in third. If Ferrari can find even a couple of tenths—as seems entirely likely, given their incredible rate of development over the winter—Mercedes may have to look at prioritising one driver over the other to ensure races, and maybe even titles, are won.

If Hamilton steamrolls Rosberg at the next few races, there'll be no prizes for guessing who that will be.

But call it fate, luck, geography, anything you like—the next two races present the German with some of the best opportunities he'll get all year to beat Hamilton and force the team to—for now at least—maintain their policy of letting their drivers compete.

The 2014 season proved beyond reasonable doubt that Hamilton is a better race driver than Rosberg. The Brit achieved 11 race wins to his team-mate's five, passed Rosberg on numerous occasions and was, at the majority of races, the quicker of the two over a grand prix distance.

But over a single qualifying lap, the duo were more evenly matched. Where both were able to do a Q3 lap, Rosberg out-qualified Hamilton 9-7. Whether it would have been eight-all had the infamous Monaco incident not occurred is open for debate—at worst, they were level pegging.

Qualifying results from 2015 suggests Hamilton, currently leading 4-0, has pulled clear. For once the statistics do paint an accurate picture—but what they don't tell us is that Hamilton has continued doing what cost him a lot of poles in 2014.

He still frequently fails to extract the maximum from his final qualifying lap.

In Malaysia, he set the pole time with a "banker lap" early in the session and failed to improve on his final run. He did the same thing in China; on both occasions, the defending champion came within less than one-tenth of a second of losing pole.

The gap in Malaysia was 0.074 seconds to Vettel, while in China it was 0.046 seconds over Rosberg.

If there's a weakness in Hamilton's driving at the moment, this is it—and a qualifying weakness is one that Rosberg, so good over one lap in his career to date, is ideally placed to exploit.

And especially so at circuits where pole is so important and Hamilton's race-craft advantage is partially neutered.

With the season-opening flyaways behind us, the European season is upon us. It kicks off with two circuits that share a common feature—overtaking has traditionally been difficult at both.

The first is the Circuit de Catalunya, host of the Spanish Grand Prix. Following another car closely around the track has never been easy; the loss of front-end grip from running in dirty air hurts more here than at perhaps any other circuit on the calendar.

We saw ample evidence of this last season. Rosberg, on one of the rare occasions he was clearly quicker in the race than Hamilton, could not find a way by. This was nothing to do with a lack of cutting edge or poor race craft—simply, he could not follow closely enough, even on the quicker tyre compound, to take advantage of the DRS zone.

That the circuit is front-limited for the tyres (wear to one or both front tyres determines when a driver's rubber is dead and he needs to stop) compounds this problem. It's not only difficult to follow a rival closely but also strategically unwise, because the loss of grip from being in dirty air causes the front tyres to slide more across the tarmac, rapidly increasing wear.

As it's these tyres that most dictate pace and strategy, that's a major problem.

Following too close and suffering this excessive wear may leave a driver open to attack from behind. With Ferrari looking strong, a chasing Mercedes that takes this approach is at risk of falling out of the podium places entirely.

What Rosberg did in China this year—hanging back and playing it safe—is, sadly, a valid approach for the second-placed driver.

This is no use at all to Rosberg if he can't qualify on pole and lead out of the first corner, but history is on his side. He has tended to have the measure of Hamilton around the Catalunya circuit, with better race pace on the two occasions they have competed as team-mates and a pole position in 2013.

Hamilton has been quickest in just one competitive session—qualifying in 2014, when he beat his rival to pole by a tenth-and-a-half.

If Rosberg had to pick a circuit at which to start a fight back, Catalunya would be very high on his list—and to follow it, he might go for the only race he has won on more than one occasion.

Monaco is as much a home race to Rosberg as the sadly departed German Grand Prix. He was raised in the principality and lives there today, and his recent record at the circuit is second to none.

He has never qualified lower than eighth, and in the last three seasons, he has finished second, first and first.

His victory last season is tainted to a degree by the controversial qualifying incident that robbed Hamilton of his final flying lap. But there are no guarantees Hamilton could have beaten his neighbour's pole time, and Rosberg's race driving was faultless.

He didn't need to push especially hard and was never seriously threatened. A third pole in as many years in 2015's race would almost certainly result in a third consecutive victory—because while passing is difficult in Spain, it's nigh-on impossible in Monaco.

If there are two equal cars running together, with no one holding them up and no one making mistakes, the chaser will not pass the leader. The straights are not long enough and the DRS is not powerful enough.

Like Spain, Monaco is a race at which a long-run pace advantage counts for far less than it does at an average circuit. Qualifying is key—and that is where Rosberg has the best chance of getting the better of Hamilton.

Rosberg is dangerously close to slipping into a role played by Mark Webber after 2010 and David Coulthard during Mika Hakkinen's championship years.

It's not Mercedes' style to have an official No. 2 driver, and the position as we knew it a couple of decades ago has now disappeared from the sport. But the role of de facto No. 2 is alive and kicking—and if Rosberg can't close the gap to his team-mate over the next few races, it's what he's going to end up becoming.

Form is against him, and the psychological battle may already be lost. As much as the two upcoming races play to his strengths, even his most ardent supporters would admit the more likely scenario is two more Hamilton poles and two more Hamilton wins.

That would be game over for Rosberg.

But if he can rediscover the qualifying ability we all know he has—and which he more than anyone knows he possesses—there's a chance, however small, that he can put himself back into contention.

Timing and qualifying data sourced from the official F1 website.

Do you view Formula One as a team sport? Or one of individuals, who only unite when circumstances dictate they must?

After a Chinese Grand Prix that saw Nico Rosberg throw his biggest tantrum yet, accusing his Mercedes colleague Lewis Hamilton of failing to play the team game, that question is more relevant than ever.

F1, and indeed motor racing, is unlike any other sport when it comes to the issue of team spirit. 

Rather than working together to grind down the opposition—as, for example, football and cricket outfits would—Formula One team-mates conspire against one another with the principal, if not sole, aim of beating the man on the other side of the garage.

In a sport in which only two people have access to equal machinery at any given time, how a driver performs alongside their team-mate reveals much about their respective qualities, strengths, weaknesses and potential.

It is this basic principle upon which the most ferocious, intense rivalries in the history of sport have been built, from Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet's tit-for-tat battle at Williams in 1986 and '87 to the struggle between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda over '88 and '89.

These conflicts, at the height of successful periods for both Williams and McLaren, were by-products of the desire, the need, the urge to be faster and faster, to become better and better. 

In the short time Mercedes have conquered F1, since the V6 turbo regulations were introduced at the beginning of 2014, comparisons have often been drawn—as they so often are when two drivers wearing the same overalls win many races—between Rosberg-versus-Hamilton and Prost-versus-Senna.

And although some similarities do exist, mostly in terms of the drivers' contrasting approaches—one is a hard-charging, relentless racer, the other relies on his methodical, meticulous capabilities—the Chinese GP, and its fallout, proved why the Hamilton-Rosberg alliance will not be remembered as an all-time great rivalry.

After making their first pit stops of the afternoon, the leaders ran in tandem, with Hamilton in front and Rosberg ahead of the chasing Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

Sensing Hamilton was driving deliberately slowly with the aim of backing his team-mate into the clutches of Vettel, Rosberg, as per the FIA television feed, radioed the team, urging Mercedes to encourage Hamilton to increase his pace.

Hamilton soon obliged, speeding up as the second stint progressed—laps of around one minute, 44 seconds at the start of the stint became efforts of mid-1:43s, according to the FIA Race Lap Analysis information—and Mercedes scored their 13th one-two finish in 22 races.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIXkCxRTdE

Normally a cause for celebration, the race result only served to reopen the wounds in the Hamilton-Rosberg relationship, those that were thought to be patched up at the end of their 2014 title fight, as the latter told Sky Sports' Pete Gill and Mike Wise:

I didn't feel [he was slowing me down], it was a fact and my race was compromised. It was a scenario we went through in detail before the race—that for the individual in front to have the best possible race for himself was to back the guy in second into Sebastian Vettel.

That was the best race for the guy in front, but not good for the team as it puts the guy in second into an unnecessary risky position. Did Lewis do it on purpose or not? I don’t know. He said in the press conference that he was just thinking about himself. That is an interesting indication, an interesting statement.

That Rosberg saw fault with Hamilton's driving at the start of the second stint, and allowed that to overshadow the result, was deeply alarming, highlighting a lack of understanding of the psyche of elite drivers.

After all, the likes of Vettel, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso—drivers with a total of eight world championships between them—have built their careers upon a certain selfishness, an unwillingness to let anything stand between them, and them alone, from success.

Thank you Shanghai! Thank you to my incredible team! And thank you to all the amazing supporters out here! #TeamLH pic.twitter.com/OL0g2mkKN5

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) April 12, 2015

Alonso, for instance, told Sky Sports' Johnny Herbert in 2013 how he would give "one arm" to add to the two drivers' titles he won in 2005 and '06, while last season, Hamilton told the official F1 website how he was hungrier than Rosberg for success.

Although the reasons Hamilton gave for that difference in hunger attracted much criticism—does living "on a couch in my dad’s apartment" really make a racing driver more competitive than someone who "grew up with jets and hotels and boats and all these kind of things"?—it is increasingly evident that the Mercedes drivers are fuelled by different motives.

Good team factory visit today. Coming up with a plan to beat the red cars in shanghai! @MercedesAMGF1 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/JfKkprHkdR

— Nico Rosberg (@NicoRosberg) April 2, 2015

While Hamilton, like all great drivers, is out to achieve success for himself, cementing his position among the finest performers of his generation and using the team as a springboard for that success, Rosberg, it seems, is merely a servant of Mercedes.

As every race weekend passes, Rosberg looks more like a classic No. 2 driver, someone who will score points consistently, record podiums whenever the car is capable and fight for wins whenever the lead driver, in this case Hamilton, hits trouble—but never provide a serious, sustainable challenge in his own right.

It is fitting that this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix takes place at the same venue where Rosberg and Hamilton had their tremendous, season-defining, race-long battle last season.

Previously regarded as a modern classic, an event which saw two men competing at the top of their game and fighting head-to-head for victory, subsequent events has seen the 2014 Bahrain GP become symbolic of the differences between the Mercedes drivers.

Under the floodlights on that serene Sakhir evening, Hamilton fought tooth-and-nail to preserve his lead over Rosberg—risking contact with the sister Mercedes on more than one occasion—as the German, despite the advantage of better tyres, couldn't make a move stick.

It was a race he should have won, a championship lead he should have extended, but a lack of conviction and confidence—an unwillingness to put the Silver Arrows at risk for personal gain—saw it slip away.

A year on, Rosberg remains a team man drowning in a sea of selfishness.

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It was at the Shanghai International Circuit back in 2008 where Lewis Hamilton confirmed his status as a Formula One world champion in waiting.

There had, of course, been several of flashes of brilliance over his opening season-and-a-half in the sport, which made it clear that Hamilton would soon emerge as a title winner. 

His podium finish on debut in Australia, his maiden victory in Canada in just his sixth grand prix and his walk-on-water acts at Japan '07 and Silverstone '08 were just a few examples of his divine, natural talent.

But it was the Chinese Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2008 season, that made it obvious Hamilton had the grit, the resolve and the nerve to make the leap from mere mortal to world champion.

At the previous round at Fuji Speedway, a venue where he had won so convincingly in the wet in 2007, Hamilton, the championship leader, made a poor getaway from pole position.

And in his attempt to reclaim the lead from Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner he completely missed his braking point, sending himself, the Ferrari and almost half the field wide.

After rejoining in third, behind the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica and eventual winner Fernando Alonso, Hamilton ran wide once again at the very next braking zone, Turn 3, losing four more positions before being spun by Felipe Massa, his title rival, on the following lap.

To add insult to injury, the British driver—after stopping for fuel and tyres—was handed a drive-through penalty for the Turn 1 incident, from which he could only recover to finish 12th, almost a lap behind Alonso.

What should have been a routine pole-to-flag win, a crucial step toward his first world championship, was an implosion as Hamilton came down with a bad case of the yips, losing all sense of focus and concentration, dazzled by the very thought of the title.

So when, just seven days later, Hamilton arrived in China with just a five-point advantage over Massa in the drivers' standings, the British driver was under a huge amount of pressure.

Was it happening again? Twelve months after gifting a Ferrari driver the championship in a race at Shanghai, was the title once again slipping away at the crucial time?

Could he handle the pressure? Would his highly emotional nature and inexperience, seemingly his biggest strengths when all was well, be his greatest weaknesses in times of difficulty?

Any concerns over how Hamilton would deal with the very vivid memories of Fuji and the previous year, however, were proved to be unjustified as he converted a simple pole into what to this day remains one of his most glorious victories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N6Ksw3p7eE

There was no slow start, no running wide, no out-of-shape moments and no reliability worries as a disciplined Hamilton oozed complete control, crossing the line 15 seconds ahead of Massa and placing one hand on the championship.

Most significantly, it proved to everyone—himself and his McLaren team included—that Hamilton was ready to join the elite.

Since that hazy afternoon in October 2008, Hamilton has always tended to produce a major performance when required and, particularly over the last 12 months, whenever his qualities have been questioned and his superiority threatened.

There was a certain inevitably, then, that after his Mercedes outfit's winning streak of eight races came to an end at the Malaysian GP a fortnight ago, it would be Hamilton leading the retaliation in China.

While this weekend's grand prix doesn't compare to the '08 Shanghai event in terms of its wider importance, it is arguably the most significant race for Mercedes since the Silver Arrows emerged as F1's dominant force at the beginning of 2014.

After winning the opening race of the season in Australia by over 30 seconds, the team were humbled in Malaysia as Hamilton and his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, were beaten on equal ground for the first time since 2013 by Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCnxSOO8lII

It was a race in which neither team nor driver covered themselves in glory as Mercedes made strategic mistakes—sacrificing track position by pitting both cars during the early safety car period and later fitting the two-time world champion with the hard, rather than medium, tyres—and Hamilton handled himself poorly, berating the team over the pit-to-car radio as the win slipped away.

After that "wake-up call," as Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff put it to Sky Sports' James Galloway, there was plenty of pressure on the reigning world champions to provide an instant response this weekend and restore their advantage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwNPIhs-gY

In a difficult qualifying session in which drivers of the calibre of Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas noticeably struggled to keep their cars—which, let's remember, have been the best of the rest behind Mercedes so far this season—on the circuit, Hamilton was immaculate, calm and commanding, just as he was in 2008.

Fastest in Q2, Hamilton needed just the one attempt to secure pole in Q3, with his first lap of one minute, 35.782 seconds, as per the official F1 website, good enough for top spot despite his main rivals all improving their times with the aid of ever-improving track conditions.

With a gap of 0.905 seconds to third-placed Vettel, according to the official F1 website, the Silver Arrows have undoubtedly re-established their authority at the front of the grid.

Hamilton's ability to bounce back strongly from disappointment and missed opportunities has been one of his most impressive traits over the last year, with his retirement from the opening race of 2014 and that collision with Rosberg in Belgium sparking career-best winning streaks.

And after Vettel's win in Malaysia appeared to blow the 2015 title race wide open, expect a composed Hamilton, once again ready to right the wrongs of the previous race, to close it firmly with victory in China.

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Lewis Hamilton has admitted representing himself in contract negotiations with Mercedes is a "pain in the backside."

As reported by Pete Gill and William Esler of Sky Sports, the Formula One champion now thinks it is "unlikely" an extension will be agreed in time for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. Although a deal has been "agreed in principle," per Gill and Esler, Hamilton suggests the delay may come from opting to sort things himself:

Obviously at the last race I said it would be done within a week, this is my first time negotiating myself and you don’t know how many times I’ve had to read about 80 pages—it is so much reading and it is all in lawyer jargon. So it has been a quite a pain in the backside to be honest.

The British driver's current contract runs until the end of the campaign. Hamilton claimed his second title last season, his first with Mercedes, and is currently leading this year's drivers' championship after two races. He won a mundane opener at the Australian Grand Prix before finishing second behind Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in Malaysia. Three points currently separate the two drivers.

Formula One's official Twitter account suggested Hamilton is likely to be successful in Shanghai:

.@LewisHamilton's #ChineseGP records:
- 3 wins
- 4 poles
- 6 podiums
- 141 laps led
More: http://t.co/qfkLXTHwWU pic.twitter.com/DE64jYa22S

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 9, 2015

He remains one of the sport's biggest stars, so Mercedes will want to secure his extended tenure as quickly as possible. Despite run-ins with team-mate Nico Rosberg last season, the pair have consistently dominated together. 

Ian Parkes of the Press Association (h/t Daily Mail) believes Hamilton's new deal could be worth up to £21 million per year. Paul Weaver of The Guardian previously indicated his new contract could run until 2018. Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda noted "there is no problem with the contract" prior to the start of the current season," per Weaver. 

However, having decided to run through the small print without an agent for the first time in his career, it seems Hamilton is becoming flustered by the wealth of information he needs to sift through.

This is likely to be a temporary hold-up, and after such a fine championship-winning year, we can expect Hamilton to commit to Mercedes for the foreseeable future.

Lewis Hamilton has welcomed Fernando Alonso back to the grid amid the likelihood he’ll compete at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend.

Alonso missed the opening race of the season in Australia, as he was still recovering from a concussion suffered in winter testing in Barcelona.

However, provided he passes a final medical assessment ahead of this weekend’s event at the Sepang International Circuit, he will once again race for McLaren.

BBC claim it is “highly unlikely” Alonso will fail the final checks, which will be conducted on Thursday by a medical delegate of the FIA—Formula 1’s governing body—as well as the chief medical officer of the Sepang circuit.

World champion Hamilton expects to race against his former teammate on Sunday and is delighted Alonso is fit and ready, although he stressed the importance of maintaining safety in the sport.

“It’s good that he’s fit and able to come back,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ. “He’s a two-time champion, and we need to have the best drivers here.

“We never want to have any drivers not racing, especially due to health issues or something caused by F1.

“Safety is key, and our primary goal is to make sure all the drivers are kept safe.”

If, as expected, Alonso takes to the grid on Sunday, his MP4-30 will be fitted with a special sensor, reports The Guardian.

The exact cause of the Spaniard’s crash is still unknown, and the sensor will help McLaren technicians pinpoint Alonso’s complaint of “heavy” steering moments before hitting a wall at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Meanwhile, the former Ferrari man appears eager to get back in the cockpit at a track where he has enjoyed wins with three separate teams in 2005, 2007 and 2012.

Malasia 2005 Renault Malasia 2007 McLaren Malasia 2012 Ferrari 3 victorias en 3 equipos. #MalasiaYalo 😄😄😄 pic.twitter.com/mnTgVCCy5k

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 23, 2015

Kevin Magnussen will make way for Alonso’s return, provided he is passed as fit to drive, and the Spaniard will partner Jenson Button for the Surrey-based outfit.

There was a certain familiarity about Lewis Hamilton's victory in last weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

A reigning world champion, having secured his breakthrough crown at the previous year's season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, sets a comfortable pole position behind the wheel of the fastest car before winning the first race of his title defence with ease?

For Hamilton's routine victory at Albert Park on Sunday, see Sebastian Vettel's triumph at the same venue four years ago.

Vettel, you'll recall, claimed the 2010 championship with a win at the Yas Marina circuit, his third victory in four races, after maintaining his calm in the high-pressure situation of a title showdown, with his triumph transforming his status in Formula One.

Despite a raft of rule changes over that winter—Pirelli replaced Bridgestone as F1's sole tyre supplier, while the return of KERS and the introduction of DRS were set to revolutionise the art of racing—Vettel returned in 2011 as an almost unrecognisable performer.

The silly mistakes which almost ruined his title challenge at various points in 2010 suddenly disappeared, while the reliability problems which had reeled Vettel into the clutches of Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Hamilton also died down significantly.

With those lingering threats to his supremacy finally banished, and with the monumental boost in confidence that was his first title triumph, Vettel soon set the benchmark for F1 drivers.

And the Red Bull driver's run of six wins in the opening eight races of 2011 effectively sealed his second consecutive title by the mid-season stage.

On the back of his win on Sunday, his 12th victory in the last 12 months, Hamilton must surely fancy his chances of emulating the man who, now in the colours of Ferrari, stood to his left on the Australian GP podium.

Hamilton's winning margin over his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, at the Melbourne race, 1.36 seconds (according to Formula 1.com), disguised his true advantage over the chasing pack.

And just like Vettel in the aftermath of the 2011 Australian Grand Prix—Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, as per BBC Sport, dropped a bombshell in confirming the German didn't even have KERS fitted to his RB7 after his dominant display—there is more to come from the reigning world champion.

Yet as promising as it seems for the British driver heading into the next sequence of grands prix in Malaysia, China and Bahrain—three tracks where he won last year—Hamilton still retains the aura of a performer who tends to make life harder than it might be otherwise.

His inherent unpredictability—the feeling that despite his status as the overwhelming favourite for the 2015 crown, he could still find a way to lose it—is a fundamental part of his global appeal and the reason why he is so enthralling to watch, but it is not inconceivable that some off-track circumstances could undermine his on-track exploits in 2015.

Both team and driver, for instance, have still failed to reach an agreement on an extension of the three-year deal Hamilton signed to join Mercedes at the beginning of 2013, despite the two-time world champion and team principal Toto Wolff implying to Sky Sports post-Abu Dhabi that a renewed contract was a certainty.

Wolff claimed to Sky Sports' James Galloway over the Melbourne weekend that the discussions are now "down to the detail," with Hamilton backing this up in his BBC Sport column, in which he referred to "a few teeny little bits that we will probably iron out over the next few days."

The fact that both parties were seemingly content to allow contract negotiations to bleed into the new season, though, was curious, especially when you consider that Hamilton, as he mentioned in the column, is conducting the talks himself, balancing the roles of grand prix driver and businessman.

Such is the modern era that "silly season" is now a year-long event rather than one confined to the second half of a given season, making it all the more bizarre that Hamilton and the team were content to let the 30-year-old be subjected to as many thoughts and media queries about the dotted line as the racing line.

How Hamilton handles the man on the other side of the garage, too, will shape his title defence.

The more the British driver wins at the start of the season, the more desperate Rosberg will grow to regain some momentum of his own, which will make a repeat of the German's 2014 antics in Monaco and Belgium far more likely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUvIJXhYrQc

When Rosberg took to the Mirabeau run-off area in qualifying for last year's Monaco Grand Prix, preventing Hamilton from setting a final effort in Q3, the British driver reacted too emotionally and made mistakes of various significance across each of the following seven race weekends, up until his lacklustre start at Monza in September.

Hamilton, in stark contrast, almost seemed to view the Mercedes' collision at Spa, which saw Rosberg give his car a puncture after an ill-judged overtaking manoeuvre went badly wrong, as a form of flattery, utilising the fallout of the crash to embark upon a career-best run of five consecutive race wins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMGDY-LgwY

And should Rosberg adopt a similar style of warfare in 2015, turning to the dark arts as a means of destabilising his team-mate, the emphasis will be on Hamilton to respond with self-control once again.

There is also relevant question marks about the one thing that hangs above athletes at the summit of their given sport: focus.

In the winter between 2013 and '14, Hamilton went on something of a self-imposed exile, telling Peter Windsor in the March 2014 print edition of F1 Racing magazine how he spent the winter months training in the mountains of Colorado, USA, in a bid to lose weight, preparing for a season he simply couldn't afford to waste.

Good to see my friend @aloeblacc last night! Such a talented and humble guy. pic.twitter.com/qg0UImm7mt

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) January 21, 2015

This time, however, the world champion was far more visible during the cold winter months—though who could blame him for letting his hair down after his 2014 success?—appearing at fashion shows and goofing around at awards ceremonies.

Could it be that despite his dominant Australian GP display, Hamilton has entered the new campaign without the concentration and dedication of a year ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAYwlzf3PAM

Potentially, yet the beauty of his current situation—behind the wheel of the dominant car on the grid—is that he doesn't need to consistently operate at his best to achieve success, as would have been the case in years gone by.

He merely needs to beat Rosberg more often than not to rack up the race wins and championships. And with Rosberg hardly among the leading drivers on the grid, the German will be banking on his team-mate being distracted by external factors, being knocked out of his rhythm and, essentially, being his own worst enemy.

The title will not be snatched from Hamilton in 2015; it can only slip from his grasp.

But with the world champion now currently performing with more composure and confidence than perhaps ever before, there is a slim chance of Hamilton letting that happen.

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Nico Rosberg may have been down and out, but he was by no means disheartened as he conducted his final round of post-race interviews at the end of the 2014 Formula One season.

The German had entered the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix just 17 points behind Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and with pole position in his pocket, he had a relatively good chance of ending the night with his first world championship in the bag.

Yet the biggest race of his life didn't go to plan.

An average getaway from the start line seemed near-disastrous in direct comparison to Hamilton's ferocious take off, which allowed the British driver to take an unobstructed lead into the first turn, from where he built a decent but hardly unassailable lead. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgrnyqYcrU

Rosberg's grand prix, though, took a turn for the worse at the halfway stage when his W05 Hybrid developed a power unit problem, forcing him to lap several seconds off the pace as he dropped like a stone through the field, ultimately finishing a lap down in 14th.

But despite losing the title at the last round of the year, despite his car failing to offer him the chance to fight for it on even ground and despite being outclassed by Hamilton in all but one of the final seven race weekends of the year, Rosberg retained a startling degree of optimism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6AxekFVmw

After congratulating Hamilton and briefly reflecting on their eight month-long game of cat and mouse, Rosberg turned his attention to his 2015 prospects, telling Sky Sports' Pete Gill and James Galloway:

It was very close between Lewis and I but I need to work on the racing a little bit. I’ve been better as a qualifier for the last two years so that is something I can really build on. I need to find a little bit in the racing and I am going to find a little bit.

I know what the area is and I am going to push for that.

Such was his confidence in not only identifying areas for improvement but actively enhancing his skills that Rosberg was almost certain to come back a stronger force 2015.

unbelievable, tomorrow starting into my 10th season!!!#F1 #ReadyForRematch #cantwait #AusGP #TeamNR6 pic.twitter.com/uI9bEjt2wp

— Nico Rosberg (@NicoRosberg) March 12, 2015

Having extracted the positives from the most disappointing day of his career, there was little to suggest—as we wrote at the time—that he would become a one-shot wonder in the mould of Mark Webber, who spent much of his latter years in the sport haunted by the regret of losing the 2010 title at the last race.

Judging by the German's performance across the Australian Grand Prix weekend, however, Rosberg has made very little progress in the four-month turnaround between last season and this.

ROS sounds positive, but it must hurt to know that, not only was he beaten by HAM today, he couldn't really get near him.

— Marc Priestley (@f1elvis) March 15, 2015

Although Hamilton, the pole-to-flag winner, had one of those weekends that he is now enjoying with increasing regularity as his confidence continues to grow, Rosberg's inability to even threaten his team-mate on both Saturday and Sunday is worrying at the start of his supposed fightback campaign.

In qualifying—Rosberg's forte in last year, remember—the German was comprehensively outperformed by his team-mate according to Formula1.com, finishing 0.4 seconds adrift of Hamilton in Q1, 0.2 down in Q2 and a massive 0.6 behind in the final segment of the session having, as he told the official FIA press conference, struggled to "get it together today."

Meanwhile, Rosberg has been on the grass as he looks to keep pace with his team-mate #AusGP #Quali pic.twitter.com/6R8mFV6GuQ

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 14, 2015

A mistake on his first run of Q3, which saw him run on to the grass at the penultimate turn, could have been copied and pasted from his error-riddled second half of 2014, while there was a familiar sluggishness about his display in racing conditions.

At Albert Park, a temporary circuit, it is not uncommon for drivers who qualify in second to emerge from the first corner in the lead—think Jenson Button's simple pass on Hamilton at the start of the 2012 event—with the one-line nature of Turn 1 giving Rosberg a strong chance to poke the nose of his car alongside Hamilton and claim the inside line for the corner.

The start of the race, however, was strangely reminiscent of the Abu Dhabi title showdown, as Hamilton was left unchallenged into Turn 1 due to the No. 6 car suffering excess wheelspin—Rosberg's W06 twitched just a few metres off the line—which left the German looking in his mirrors, not ahead, as he approached the first braking zone of the year.

If that was a missed opportunity, Rosberg's failure to capitalise upon the early safety car period was just plain careless as Hamilton was allowed to scamper away at the restart, establishing a lead of 2.3 seconds by the end of the first racing lap (as per the FIA television feed).

Rosberg's tendency to use more fuel than his team-mate—a recurring theme in 2014 and a severe disadvantage in this new era of F1—has also showed no signs of changing, with an FIA TV graphic on Lap 16 highlighting that Hamilton had used 23.94 per cent of his fuel at that stage of the race in contrast to Rosberg's percentage of 24.43. 

His radio message on Lap 53, as heard on the FIA TV feed, to ask the team how "the other car" was faring in terms of fuel management also suggests Rosberg is still struggling to get to grips with the crackdown on team radio in mid-2014, which prevents engineers from feeding drivers detailed information.

I asked @nico_rosberg about fuel saving yesterday - he's been working on it since last year

— Adam Cooper (@adamcooperF1) March 15, 2015

For a driver who is lauded for his intelligence and cerebral capabilities, Rosberg's apparent failure to learn from the lessons of last year is a cause for concern even at this early stage.

The changes he did make over the winter—overhauling his in-car breathing habits to maintain his fitness over a race, as he explained to ESPN F1, and experimenting with a different seating position, which as he told Crash.net caused a neck strain in testing—are merely every-little-helps moves and not the holy grails which will result in his beating of Hamilton.

Last man standing... #Dedication #BackToWork #F1 pic.twitter.com/5T5PWbWT3j

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 1, 2015

Hamilton, for his part, almost seemed to be mocking his team-mate as a glorified geek after qualifying, telling Sky Sports' Pete Gill how Nico "has been working a lot on the simulator, he has been doing race runs every time he goes into the factory, spending all day on the simulator trying to close the gap to me."

Arguably the highlight of Rosberg's weekend was the post-race FIA press conference, where he jokingly invited Sebastian Vettel, the third-place finisher, to Mercedes' garage in Malaysia after bizarrely admitting "it would be good" if Ferrari could close the gap to the Silver Arrows.

Although it provided a welcome light-hearted moment on a generally miserable weekend for F1, there was a disguised meaning behind the drivers' exchange: Nico simply needs the likes of Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull to help him take points away from, and ultimately conquer, Hamilton.

Because it's more obvious than ever that Professor Rosberg won't be able to do it alone.

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