Where does Nico Rosberg go from here?

[Nitrodaze]

I understand the need to be first , and how bad they want it .

Certainly , Nico lost the pole advantage on the way to the corner , but he was right there with Lewis on entry .

You have two choices at that point , one to brake early and get him coming out , and the other , to stay outside , forcing him to brake early , knowing that if he didn't , he would touch .
I'm pretty sure Nico knew he would slide into him , as he had in the second corner at Suzuka , but he had to keep his line outside as the Bulls were right behind , waiting to pounce .
He was forced to believe his team mate would follow both the rules of the series and the specifically designed rules within his own team .

He was on the better trajectory , and on the grippier part of the track , but got rudely punted . It's as simple as that .


Nico had the measure of Lewis this last weekend , except for that one mistake , despite having to deal with the first corner punk .

I'm sad it's over , especially this way .

If Rosberg was ahead at the apex, he would have claimed the racing line to be in the inside for the next corner, but he was not. His only chance was for Hamilton to generously let him have the racing line and you know that was not going to happen.

Like you say, Rosberg was right there beside Hamilton but not in an advantageous position but a weak position that was going to get weaker the bigger a threat he became through the apex. It is no different to what MNassa did to Hamilton at the restart of the race after the safety car pulled in at Silverstone. Hamilton was positioned at a weak location relative to Massa who was ahead and Massa simply seized the racing line pushing Hamilton clean off the track in the process.

The first corner incident is really irrelevant, particularly since it had no bearing on the outcome of the race. I think it would have been interesting if Rosberg was able to pull off a win to keep the title fight open for a couple more races. As it went, Rosberg handed the win to Hamilton. He can blame no one else for that but himself.
If there was anything to be said, it is Rosberg let the fans down by not doing what it takes to win the race and keeping the driver championship alive for as long as possible; particularly since he clearly had the advantages to do so.

That said, l hope Hamilton helps Rosberg to claim the 2nd place spot by the end of the season. There is hard racing and there is team playing as well.