The German, who many expected to act as cannon fodder for Hamilton this year,
has taken pole at the last three grands prix and hit the jackpot in Monaco
two weeks ago with a win while Hamilton’s lapse of concentration behind the
safety car meant he ended up fourth. But for a couple of DNFs and team
orders in Malaysia, Rosberg would be the lead Mercedes driver in the
standings.
If Rosberg’s pace has surprised some observers, it has not surprised Hamilton,
who was quick to point out that the Mercedes team had been built around his
team-mate.
“Absolutely, the confidence Nico has here everybody is used to the way he
works,” Hamilton said. “He has his methods which he uses when he is with his
engineers. People are used to the way he communicates. I do it in a
different way, some like it some don’t. I have just got to keep myself to
myself and get on with it.”
Perhaps it is fortuitous, from Hamilton’s point of view, that the circus has
alighted in Montreal this weekend. If there is one track that brings
Hamilton alive, it is this one. The 28-year-old has won on every occasion he
has finished here, which is to say three times, and has also taken pole
three times in five visits. He is clearly hoping that the peculiar
characteristics of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit – the close walls, the long
straights leading into tight chicanes, the late braking – will help him to
rediscover his mojo.
The trouble is, the very characteristic which makes Hamilton so strong here is
the very thing has deserted him this season. “It’s all in the the braking,”
he explained. “It’s just my feeling in the car. I’m confident in the car.
The car is great, as Nico proved in Monaco. You just have to feel at one
with the car and I’m definitely not feeling it.
“This track is all about late braking and I’ve always been the latest of
brakers, which is why I’ve been so successful here. But I’ve not been a very
late braker this year, so it won’t do me too well here.
“I just need to get around it and adapt. I don’t believe that I can’t adapt.
And I don’t want to spend the rest of this year getting it right. I want to
get it right now. I just need to grab the bull by the horns.”
If there is one thing Hamilton is good at, it is grabbing the bull by the
horns. Even in Monaco, when he was not feeling at one with his car, he only
lost out to Rosberg by nine hundredths of a second in qualifying.
Friday’s practice was inconclusive, affected as it was by rain in the morning
and by the need to run Pirelli’s development tyre for the next race at
Silverstone in the afternoon, but Saturday’s qualifying battle between the
two Mercedes drivers promises to be a real humdinger. Both drivers have 100
per cent records against their team mates here – Rosberg in six visits and
Hamilton in five. Something will have to give.