Lewis Hamilton’s ‘mate’ backs Nico Rosberg

· by · in Daily F1 News and Comment. ·

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The man who many F1 fans believe handed Lewis Hamilton his first F1 driver’s title in 2008 believes this may be Nico Rosberg’s year. Timo Glock appeared to tamely allow Hamilton to overtake on the last lap of the last race in Brazil after Felipe Massa had crossed the line to head up the championship.

“Maybe it’s Nico’s year” Glock tells press agency SID, adding after his 6 race winning streak that the German driver is F1’s ‘man of the hour’. The ex-F1 driver admits this is the longest F1 season ever and Hamilton still has time to make up the deficit.

Rosberg is playing it cool, repeatedly stating during the Chinese GP weekend that Hamilton is the ‘benchmark’ despite opening up a 36 point advantage over his team mate. “He will never give up,” said Nico, “and he’s the benchmark, he’s been the benchmark for the last years so the battle is going to be a big battle as always.”

The German’s psychology is interesting because by ‘bigging up’ Hamilton, Rosberg defers thoughts of pressure and premature talk of winning titles. Yet if he continues to dominate Hamilton his own stock will obviously rise because repeatedly beating ‘an F1 great’ or the ‘benchmark’ invariably makes for favourable comparisons.

With 17 race wins now under his belt, Nico Rosberg is now just 3 victories behind F1 world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Mikka Hakkinen. A victory in Russia and another in Spain would see Rosberg junior equal Nigel Mansell’s record of 5 consecutive race wins from the start of a season.

62 responses to “Lewis Hamilton’s ‘mate’ backs Nico Rosberg”

  2. “Timo Glock appeared to tamely allow Hamilton to overtake on the last lap of the last race in Brazil after Felipe Massa had crossed the line to head up the championship.”…..

    The author is trying so hard, they’ve even gotten the year wrong

    😂😂😂😂😂

    ….fixed 😳…😉

    • It is well known that I am not a fan LH, but these constant digs and referring to stuff like this is so uneccesary and amateurish.

    • I do not know what the author is trying to do, what I know as an F1 follower is that Lulu certainly lucked-into his first championship in 2008, I remember Massa having crossed the line/taking the finish flag over half a minute (38.907 seconds) before Lulu found himself fifth on the last corner of the race.

    • I do not know what the author is trying to do or say, what I know as an F1 follower is that in 2008 Massa having mastered the chaotic conditions perfectly crossed the finish line and scored the points necessary to become champion over half a minute (38.907 seconds) before Lulu lucked into fifth place at the last corner which was enough to get him his first world championship.

      • In his rookie year he finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, just one point behind Kimi Räikkönen. He would have won the title that year if it wasn’t for the ineptitude of the McLaren team and the antagonism from his team mate Alonso.

  3. Nico is doing all the right things at present. I’m not convinced yet though, I want to see a race where both drivers make reasonable starts and battle it out on track before making a judgement on their respective 2016 pace.

    • hopefully we’ll see it in Russia (2016 is turning into the year of unbridled optimism, so why not).
      There’s simply no denying in qualy Lewis has simply looked the faster driver, yet Russia was a highlight for Nico last year in terms of qualy so should be interesting to see can if he beat Lewis is a straight fight, it would surely do wonders for his confidence if he can…on the other hand if not, it would surely nag on his mind.
      As for Lewis, his starts were the cause of his undoing in both the opening races, but at least he seemed to come off the line cleanly in China…looking forward to seeing them side by side at the first corner!!!

      • Could it be that in China Mercedes used their own clutch design instead of Sachs? that was what we were told they are working on!, not that they were trying to prop-up their Lulu mind you!.

  4. OK, I think this site starts to get a bit boring, article after article about Hamilton while he’s not top of the leaderboard.

    But, not a single article about Vettel losing his nerve under pressure and blaming it all on Kvyat!
    Not a single article on McLaren unerachieving yet for another year!
    Not a single article about Ricciardo and his sublime driving so far!

    I guess mention of the name ‘Hamilton’ in any article increases traffic…!

    • A German going insane in Russia isn’t news. They’ve done it already before.
      (Don’t mention the war. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it 😂)

    • Yes, Vettel lost his “nerve under pressure” and went on to drive brilliantly and finish in 2nd place. Condemnation of said driver is based more on his confrontation with Kvyat prior to the trophy ceremony rather than his race performance. And the incident in the T1 complex was more of a normal racing incident than a failure of any of the three drivers involved (Kimi, Seb, Daniil).

      The Colgate Kid is driving well, I’ll give you that.

      • Agreed on all about Vettel. But the point I was trying to make, was exactly that. Why not have an article on Vettel and debate all you wrote? And another one on Colgate kid and what the future might hold for him?

    • to be fair, I thought McLaren did really well given that they were without their number one driver in China 🙂

      Sorry Fernando, couldn’t help myself. To be fair to McLaren, they are actually making progress, just slowly. Honda’s relaxed attitude to the timescale required for improvement worryingly seems to be brought up every now and then…reminds me of a terrible railway company slogan …”we go further to get you there”. I still have faith they’ll get there (eventually), it’ll be all the more enjoyable if/when they do.

      Yup, so far Ricciardo is the king of 2016!!

      • I know a few taxi drivers who ‘go further to get you there’, then ‘go further’ with the bill as well……bastards!
        #justenough’knowledge’tobedangerous
        #itsalonglongroad
        #schumiwasmycabdriver

          • T’was merely a stylistic tip of the hat to our hashtag-loving mutual friend.
            I think they’re a fun nonsense, another linguistic ‘app’ (I use the term advisedly) at our disposal.
            If nothing else, they indicate the biases of the postee.
            However, if it offends thee, verily, I shall start using asterisks instead.
            *didntseethatonecoming
            *whichisworsevotenow
            *evenIfindmeannoying

          • Please don’t. I am a huge fan of the nonsense #. I use them very much. Be it on twitter. #AintNoThingButAChickenWing. All those in my last comment where actually in my phones dictionary and popped up at the typing of a # symbol.

        • Why does C4 think they can make up for their shitty website and terrible catch-up player, via making up some banal hashtags to bookend their ad break bumpers?

          Is that their idea of social media interaction?

  5. I think the author’s memory of the nature of Hamilton’s last lap overtake of Glock in Brazil 2008 is somewhat blurred. The race I was watching saw Timo struggling on dry tyres, enabling Lewis to pass. This particular ‘conspiracy’ theory should be parked in the anals of history where it deservedly belongs.

      • Nigel, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer you didn’t correct such things in the future. I’d consider it a personal favour.

        You see, now there is no chance that we’ll see the ‘anals of history’ repeated on this site. That gem might’ve been parroted time and time again. Now… not.

        *sad face*

        • Odd how some some contributers constantly feel the need to behave in an arsey manner or perhaps I’m being unfair and it was just an attempt at humour from down under. Either way anals will do nicely on this occasion!

          • Haha, Dobzizzle. Comment of the week. I think ‘so’s your mum’ works well too.

            Josh, truer words were never spoken. Indeed, ‘anals will do nicely.’ 😀

            Oh, and it wasn’t an attempt at humour, it was a sincere request for the sake of my personal juvenile amusements. That gem might’ve filtered into #TeamLH’s Twitter missives.

            Anyhow… on we march.

            Nigel, thank you in advance.

    • I think you’re a little (actually make that very) unfair to the author here.

      He clearly states “The man who many F1 fans believe handed Lewis Hamilton his first F1 driver’s title”. If he’d written “The man who handed Lewis Hamilton his first F1 driver’s title” then you’d have a point. You don’t though, as there are many F1 fans who do believe Timo pulled over for Lewis, I’m not one of them, but there are plenty.

      In summary it’s just the same as saying there are ‘many fans who support Lewis’, or there are ‘many fans who dislike Vettel due to his clashes with Webber’ etc.

      • Hey Paul, look someone’s using hashtags…. Care to tell them old chap that this is not the place for such things?

          • Hahaha!
            #thepenismightiertha…huh…huh…huh…I just said ‘penis’.

          • Odd how some some contributers constantly feel the need to behave in an arsey manner or perhaps I’m being unfair and it was just an attempt at humour
            Oh that’s been said before 😂

  6. Agreed Josh and all who berated the author for a very tenuous link. Lewis drove brilliantly that year
    to snatch the championship in the last corners, and I am sure that after his unfortunate start this year
    he will be challenging again until the very last race.

  7. “A victory in Russia and another in Spain would see Rosberg junior equal Nigel Mansell’s record of 5 consecutive race wins from the start of a season.”
    So does Schumacher’s 5 consecutive wins from the start of the 2004 season not count? He might of had 13 straight wins from the start if he wasn’t hit by Montoya in the tunnel.

    • hit in the tunnel…was that one from the ‘anals of history’ as well WTF?

      Ah sorry, now I’m at it too. Slow day!

    • Schumacher hit by Montoya like Vettel got hit bij Kimi in China?
      🙂

      Fun this.

      It will go down in my personal anals of history, can someone pass the vaseline?

      Question: Does history bleech his anals? I dare typing that, but asking my wife is a whole other thing…

      • Love the instant comments.
        I googled and realised that I was wrong about Schumi and Juan Pablo. I guess mentally I blame Schumi.

        • It’s ok, Verstappen. After your first comment, I also held my breath and poked around that particular anal of history. As you saw, it reeked of Monty. As I drilled deeper into said anal, I couldn’t help but notice how silly that particular coupling was – but then, all Monty / Schumi couplings were alpha male expressions of dominance. Made for some fun times.

          #Hashtag

      • By the way, when I typed my original comment I had no idea that this was what our highness referees to.

        Guess it’s now good that I didn’t remeber the joke about the rabbi and Erdogan and the strap-on.
        I believe animals were involved too.

  8. ‘Rosberg is playing it cool, repeatedly stating during the Chinese GP weekend that Hamilton is the ‘benchmark’ ‘

    Rosberg is saying what he is saying not out of any psychology but to keep his feet on the ground and to manage expectations. He is being realistic and not getting carried away with all the hyperbole.

    The current standings flatter Rosberg’s racing skills and he knows it! Because battle has not yet been joined on the race track Rosberg knows the vast points difference between him and Hamilton is because he has benefited from the latter’s ‘freakish’ misfortunes .

    In 2014 twice Hamilton fought back from large defecit’s to win the WDC . He can do it again with 18 racesto go ( a whole race season) , even if Rosberg has perfect car reliability ( which statistics say is highly unlikely he is bound to suffer at least 1 bad race and at least 1 DNF ).

    Hamilton is a proven quantity when the pressure is on and fighting for a WDC with a few races to go . Rosberg has never been tested at the highest limits.- He could easily fold under all the pressure and expectations

    Also, more pertinently on the track Hamilton has been awesome this year. comfortable with the car except the starting but in China he launched off the line like a bullet ! Hopefully he keeps repeating this start for all future races and no one will catch him.

    Also note : Hamilton has scored 2 pole positions and had his car been working in China qualifying you would put your money on Hamilton getting getting pole and winning the race.
    BTW Only twice has Rosberg won in China and both were times when something went wrong with Hamilton’s car !

  9. there is no doubt whatsoever that “has Lulu’s car been working in China qualifying” all hamfosi’s would have put their money on him getting pole, regardless of opinions of others to the contrary.

  10. Can I assume that all those b!tching about the nature of the articles on this site have taken up TJ’s offer of a job and are now beavering away at their keyboards?

    I look forward to b!tching about your articles while calling into question your intelligence, your motives, your lineage and your choice of fetish.

    • With all due respect and deeply acknowledging the great work this (my favourite) site is doing, I have to ask; is this an F1 website or a blog? I don’t see BBC F1 or SkySports asking people to write articles when they’re criticised.If on the other hand it’s more of a blog, then I retract my comment further up.

      • Well, I would have thought that it’s fairly obvious that TJ13 is a bit of both – ‘site & blog. I’m not sure that it needs to be just one or the other, does it?

        It’s been a clear theme here since the start that the place is “for the fans, by the fans”. The requests for guest and regular writers has been always been there too. As has the “put up or shut up” thing. Nothing new there.

        I guess TJ13 is ultimately a not-for-profit, volunteer organisation who have explicitly asked for extra help since the time available from the foundation crew and those who have actively sought to be involved has fallen below that required to keep the place fully functioning. Chalk.

        BBC F1 and Sky Sports are professional news organisations permanently staffed by well-paid professional writers (no sniggering in the back row, please). Cheese.

        We all need to play the game here. TJ has provided the venue and the tunes. Punters are encouraged to shake their collective booties in the comment section. Even if you don’t like a song you can still jiggle it just a little bit (and bump the comment count). Or you can excuse yourself while you take the opportunity for a quick slash outside the off stump. But, standing on the edge of the dance floor booing or loudly slagging off the DJ? Well that just kills the vibe for everyone.

        Disclosure: As far as I recall, my only posted objection to the content here was regarding stories about F1 wives / girlfriends – just not necessary, IMO.

  12. you can assume that we did just that and for free at that, our aim is to make this site one of the best F1 forums to be in and that regardless of what one would like to read/hear or not, so if it takes b!tching about and calling into question/disagreeing with others intelligence so be it, this should be the place for those that can stand the heat in the kitchen to be in.

    • With all these comments, I really feel that there’s something back that is important to this site and community.

      Bantering like in a pub, without political correctness is one of my reasons to consider this site as a great place.

      And I do like the tone of voice in these articles.

  13. The TJ13 site must be desperate for views with another Hamilton clickbait article. From what I recall Timo Glock admitted in a post-race interview following 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, he was down in 7th place behind Ham’s then team-mate Kovalainen. As the rain came down, everyone but GLock pitted, which leaped him into 4th ahead of Vettel & Hamilton. In the end, in spite of the ignominy of Vettel and Hamilton overtaking on the last corner on the last lap, Glock gained 1 position in the race results (beating Kovalainen) in comparison to where he was with seven laps to go.

    As Hamilton’s 2016, he made a poor start with the clutch in Australia and the red flag messed up his chances of catching Rosberg. In Bahrain, he was divebombed by Valtteri Bottas, suffering vital damage to his aerodynamics and losing downforce, meaning he was 17 points behind Rosberg through misfortune after 2 rounds. Then of course in China, his gearbox broke in practice followed by power unit problems in Q1 and a collision with Nasr on the first lap.

    I used to take TJ13, especially with that brilliant Red Bull engine story, where you broke the news of a pending TAG HEUER badging deal using Renault engines. However, your articles are now bending more towards opinions rather than facts.

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