Niki Lauda: Nico Rosberg will turn nasty in rivalry with Lewis Hamilton
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Version 0 of 1. Niki Lauda expects Nico Rosberg to turn “nasty” at some stage of the season after accusing the German and his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton of being “egocentric bastards”. Hamilton spearheaded a Mercedes one-two at the Shanghai International Circuit in winning the Chinese Grand Prix for the fourth time, the 35th win overall of his Formula One career. Rosberg, though, accused Hamilton of selfishness during the post-race press conference after the reigning champion slowed in the middle stint of the race to preserve his soft tyres, which in turn slowed him down. As far as Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda was concerned, the actions of Hamilton were that of a driver with a winning mentality. “We were first and second and I don’t care if there is a quarrel, as long as Vettel was third,” said Lauda. “One thing is clear from my point of view, Lewis had pole position and controlled the race from the beginning to the end, therefore there is no need for a quarrel.” “These guys... I call them egocentric bastards, and this is the only way to win a championship. It’s the oldest thing. There is no friendship out there. When you race you have to fight, that’s it.” The three-times champion, however, believes Rosberg will hit back at some stage. “Nico will calm himself down,” he said. “For sure, when you are being beaten by your team-mate it hurts. When I was being beaten by [Alain] Prost all the time I was not happy. On the other hand Nico is a guy who comes back quickly, so thank God there is only one week to the next race so all this talk will stop quickly when they start driving again on Friday. “Of course, Lewis bites, he has the talent to bite, but Nico is as nasty as he is if he sees the chance.” |