As the Saudi Arabian GP progressed to Lap 28, Lewis Hamilton, having switched to faster medium compound tires, started to hunt his teammate George Russell down. Apparently, after listening to the team radio conversation of Russell with his race engineer, he refused to let Hamilton pass. The incident exposed what might well be the start of a new teammate v teammate rivalry. And who better knows what it is like to beat him in the same machinery than Nico Rosberg? The 2016 world champion is back and has valuable advice for Russell if he intends to beat his teammate once again as he did last year.

Lewis arrived at Mercedes in 2013. That year, the car wasn’t competitive enough to challenge for the championship. Hence, things between him and Nico remained cordial. However, after the start of the hybrid engine era, the Mercedes drivers were each other’s only competition, and that caused friction between them. Things got so out of hand at one stage that team principal Toto Wolff had to step in and take extreme measures to calm the waters between them. After the Briton beat him twice to the championship, Rosberg got one over him in 2016 and retired. He now has some insights for Lewis’ new budding rival.

Speaking with Sky Sports, he said, “It’s a little bit of a weakness that Lewis has that sometimes.”

“He’ll mentally go into this down a little bit and lose a little bit of flow. But he comes back with a bang every single time so dear George don’t get too comfortable.”

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Nico also talked about seeing a future champion in George Russell. However, he warned him against the genuine threat of his teammate whom he dubbed “the best of all time”.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell set for a battle

Russell joined Mercedes from Williams last year. In his very first year with the team, he did not just beat Lewis on overall points but also managed a race win, which his teammate couldn’t. That was no mean feat and deservedly earned him a lot of praise. Rosberg feels that changing that would be Hamilton’s biggest challenge this year.

He told, “George is the ultimate test, he is a future world champion. It is difficult for Lewis to stay in front. We saw it last year. What an awesome season George did.”

“George is continuing on that form once again. It’s going to be a big, big challenge, but let’s not forget Lewis is the best of all time so if there’s going to be someone who can beat George then it will be Lewis.”

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Do you think Russell can continue the good run from last year and beat Hamilton once again?