Last time out in Spain, Nico Rosberg silenced his many critics, and took a dominant win over his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. This cut his championship deficit from 27 points to 20. The pair now arrive at the scene of one of last season’s major flashpoints. In the last part of qualifying, with Rosberg having provisional pole, he locked up his tires at Mirabeau. This resulted in Rosberg going off, and activating the yellow flags. With Hamilton just behind him, this ruined the Lewis’ lap. The aftermath led many to believe, including Hamilton, that Rosberg did it on purpose. In the race, Rosberg went on to win, and the angst in Hamilton was clear to see on the podium afterwards.
2015 Monaco Mercedes Preview
No. 6 NICO ROSBERG (DEU)
Form: 1,3,2,3,2
2014: Grid P1, Race P1
Last year wasn’t Rosberg’s only win here. He won in 2013, again from pole position. The year before, he started third on the grid, and came in second. Rosberg hasn’t always experienced good results here. He retired in two of his first three outings, and only finished in the points twice out of six occasions. At the beginning of the week, Rosberg presented gifts to Prince Albert for the palace. Rosberg will be hoping that he can achieve the ultimate gift this weekend, and make it a hat-trick of victories. With only six drivers ever won the Monaco Grand Prix three times, can Rosberg join this illustrious list?
No. 44 LEWIS HAMILTON (GBR)
Form: 2,1,1,2,1
2014: Grid P2, Race P2
Hamilton’s record around here is modest by his standards. In his eight Monaco outings, he has only been on the podium three times. Two of them came in his his two seasons, with a second place in his rookie year, and his sole win, in 2008. It took him six years to taste the podium champagne at Monaco again, and in that time he has finished mainly in the middle of the points-scoring positions. In 2011, he had a turbulent race. Involved in incidents with Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado, Monaco was the scene of where it began to go horribly wrong for the Brit that season. With last year’s incident with Rosberg igniting a poor spell of form for Hamilton in qualifying for the next few races, the feeling must be if Lewis was to have another poor weekend here, would it have an effect on his season?
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