Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg expects close Hamilton battle to continue

Nico Rosberg expects to fight team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the drivers’ championship until the end of the season.

Hamilton started the year in impressive form, winning three of the opening four races and finishing second in the other. However, Rosberg matched those results in the four races from Spain to Austria currently sits 17 points adrift of Hamilton, meaning he is within a race victory of the championship leader. Rosberg says the dominant performance of the Mercedes this year means he knows he has the ability to take the title fight to the wire.

”Of course it’s unbelievable to have the car that we have, the Mercedes car is pretty incredible, so fast,” Rosberg said. “I go to every race knowing if I do a good job I can win the race, and that’s awesome. It’s always enjoyable but it makes it all the more enjoyable to have that feeling.

“It’s a good battle with Lewis. One race he’s winning or I’m winning and then it’s the other way, it’s a great battle. It’s very close all the time, just as it was last year, and it’s probably going to continue to be like that for the near future at least.”

Rosberg recently admitted the relationship between himself and Hamilton is currently good, but he is aware it can change quickly as the two fight for race victories.

Click here for F1i's Hungarian Grand Prix preview

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.