The prospect of this battle deserved a thread of its own I feel.

We have two top quality drivers who are going to be able to push each other to the limit. It's a great sign for Mercedes future.

So here's a summary of what has happened thus far.

Australia - Hamilton was outpaced by Rosberg in all practice and qualifying sessions until finally in Q1 Hamilton put in a storming lap and pipped Rosberg to out-qualify him. This was probably due to the changeable conditions we were witnessing in Oz, otherwise I genuinely feel Rosberg would have out-qualified him. Hard to compare the race as Rosberg retired.

Malaysia - Again Hamilton was outpaced by Rosberg in every single Free practice and qualifying sessions. Similar to Oz, Hamilton put in a storming lap in the last session of qualifying. The questions of whether or not Rosberg would have beaten him is hard to answer since he got held up by Kimi on a flying lap but I've a feeling Hamilton had the better of him here. In the race, although Hamilton was ahead, for most of it Rosberg was about 0.3 tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton per lap and Rosberg was able to make his tires last longer. Rosberg would have finished up on the podium were it not for team orders and ahead of Hamilton.

Now, as the year goes on, it's possible that Hamilton will embed more into the team and gain and edge over Rosberg. On the other hand, Rosberg has shown what he can do and surely, thus far, appears more than a match for Hamilton.

I think Seb will win the WDC again this year though Alonso might have something to say about it, so for me, the Mercedes teammate battle is the most exciting thing on the grid this season.

I can't wait to see how it pans out over the coming year. I also believe that Nico will out-qualify Hamilton in China. That's my tip!

Thoughts?