quote Lewis Hamilton denies being friends with Nico Rosberg as gloves come off at Mercedes Rosberg retakes lead of championship with victory in Monte Carlo; Hamilton angered by Mercedes' pit strategy
By Pete Gill. Last Updated: 25/05/14 4:48pm
The gloves have officially been taken off at Mercedes after an angry Lewis Hamilton denied that he was friends with Nico Rosberg in the wake of the German regaining the lead of the World Championship by winning the Monaco GP.
Simmering with indignation after being denied a final run to snatch pole position in Saturday's controversial qualifying session and, a day later, an opportunity to overtake Rosberg during the race with an opportunistic early pitstop, Hamilton has signalled that his friendship with the German, which dates back to their adolescence, is now over.
"We are not friends," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "We are colleagues."
Rosberg - 'We're always friends'
Hamilton and Rosberg have repeatedly insisted that their friendship would survive the aggravation and stress of fighting each other for the World Championship.
"We've always been friends, we always will be friends," Rosberg later told Sky F1. "But friends is a big word. What exactly is friends? We have a good relationship and work well together."
The pair failed to acknowledge each other after the race, 24 hours after Hamilton refused to offer Rosberg the benefit of the doubt when the German secured pole position in highly controversial circumstances with his last-lap error preventing his team-mate completing his final lap in the most important qualifying session of the year.
Rosberg's 'hollow' Saturday victory paved the way for his second lights-to-flag victory in a year around the ultra-tight confines of Monte Carlo as Hamilton failed to find a way around the sister Mercedes.
"I had great pace and felt very strong but it's a very difficult place to overtake," added Hamilton.
But it's the simmering antagonism between the two Mercedes drivers which is threatening to overtake all other talking points in the sport - although talking to each other is the one thing that Hamilton and Rosberg, but particularly Hamilton, appear determined to avoid.
Monaco GP - Team Radio
"I don't really have an answer for that," replied Hamilton when asked if he planned to sit down with Rosberg in a bid to clear the air.
"He said his thing in a meeting with Toto [Wolff] and Niki [Lauda], and I said what I needed to say and that's as far as we need to go really."
Rosberg apologised to Hamilton on Sunday morning for blocking his final lap in qualifying, while it emerged on race day that Hamilton himself said sorry to Rosberg in Spain two weeks ago after running with a higher engine setting than had been pre-agreed prior to the race.
Kimi Raikkonen has questioned why the stewards at the Monaco Grand Prix did not make a bigger deal about his incident with Max Chilton that ruined his race.
Raikkonen was running third when the safety car was called out to clear Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber at the Nouvelle Chicane. When lapped cars were allowed to repass, Chilton made contact with Raikkonen at Mirabeau causing a puncture and forcing the Ferrari to pit again.
Chilton was reprimanded for the incident, which was the same punishment that Raikkonen received for his clash with Kevin Magnussen towards the end of the race, but when Raikkonen was called to the stewards’ office he felt more attention was given to the latter incident and the fact he missed the drivers’ parade.
“Nobody talked about the safety car thing until I asked,” he said before the reprimands had been published. “It’s not very straightforward unfortunately with those things sometimes. Obviously that was the thing that destroyed the race, but clearly they were not very interested.”
“They asked why I missed the drivers’ parade, but that was because I did not feel very good. So they make a big story about that, but not the main things.”
Despite running as high as third and pulling away from Daniel Ricciardo before the safety car, Raikkonen said he was still not happy with the way his Ferrari was handling.
“Small things went wrong and it made a massive difference. It was unfortunate things but I’m still unhappy with the car, the race was better than qualifying, but we still have a long way to go and to be where we want to be.”
about stewards: "Nobody has talked about the safety car phase until I asked about it. They said: 'About this we know nothing. I asked how that can be? then one guy said to me: 'We have nothing from Charlie. Charlie told me that he had spoken to them about it, but 10 minutes later they tell me that he had not said anything. No idea. These things are unfortunately sometimes not very honest. Obviously this was the thing that destroyed my race but they had no great interest."
incident with Chilton "Somehow he has managed to drive into my rear tyre and damaged it. I don’t know how he could have expected that I would go off the line into a tight turn. He has destroyed my race at this time. After that the race was finished. I had a good position and a good speed but I haven’t taken anything which was not our fault."
incident with Magnussen "I tried to overtake him, and didn’t get the turn. He went slightly to the left and I drove over the curb. I almost did it but the wall was too close. So I had to turn around. I never touched him. At that moment it didn't interest me much. Two points, eighth, tenth or eleven, it made no difference to me."
was it his best race of season? "I have often done well, but in the race then always went something wrong. Punctures or other people who touched me. It just never all fits together. It's a shame,because today we had a good position again. It's just bad luck. Little things go wrong and make a big difference. There are unfortunate things and I'm still not happy with the car. During the race it was better than in qualifying, but it is still a long way to go before we get there, where we want to be. We have to improve in many areas. We have made a lot of things especially with the PU. But we still lack speed "
"Hopefully we have a bit more luck in the future."
Print view
Sun May 25, 2014 4:19 pm
reply
He make an awesome start. Sad the race end like this. Fastest lap from him 
