Source: Mercedes-Benz Archive

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Rosberg worried about Hamilton body language after qualifying exit

Rosberg worried about Hamilton body language after qualifying exit

21-07-2018 17:00
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Jake Williams-Smith

Nico Rosberg knows Lewis Hamilton well from their time battling at Mercedes for the Formula One world championship and what he saw from Hamilton after his shocking mistake in qualifying "worried" him.

Having failed to string together a strong lap in qualifying one but guaranteed to make it through the session, Hamilton made an uncharacteristic error in judgement, damaging his Mercedes W09, after hitting bumps returning to the track having run wide at turn one.

The team quickly told Hamilton to park his car reporting that it was "power unit critical" and that he would be in danger of damaging his car further should he not stop.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, Rosberg said what he saw worried him.

“This is something I am a bit worried about. I have never seen that body language from him before,” he said.

“We saw it for the first time at Silverstone and now again for a very long time there – disbelief or something.

“Of course it is tough, but this is a new body language, I have never seen that from Lewis.”

The mistake may prove costly this weekend with Hamilton starting P14 at best should his team decide to not start him from the pitlane and with championship rival and leader Sebastian Vettel on pole for his home grand prix.

“This is such a huge setback because Vettel is out there, the car is flying, he is odds-on favourite to win the race, and Lewis again has to start from somewhere back,” he added

“So that is going to be a very difficult day tomorrow for him.

“To me, it looked like he made a mistake at Turn 1, went really wide, and he had some big big hits because he was off the track there, and right after that the problem started.”