Lewis Hamilton given taste of his own medicine by Max Verstappen claims old foe Rosberg

Nico Rosberg tells of his willingness to befriend Lewis Hamilton

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Former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg has suggested that Max Verstappen is giving Lewis Hamilton a taste of his own medicine after the Dutchman’s aggressive driving style drew criticism during a tense title battle in 2021. Hamilton and Rosberg spent four seasons together with the Silver Arrows, forming one of the most successful but fractious partnerships in the sport’s recent history. 

F1 fans were treated to a healthy dose of wheel-to-wheel action last season, with Hamilton and Verstappen both vying for a closely-contested world title. 

It came to a controversial end in Abu Dhabi when the Red Bull man claimed victory on the final lap, but the intense nature of the battle between the pair became clear long before that. 

At Imola, in just the second race of the season, Verstappen got off to a fast start and ran Hamilton wide on the opening lap, forcing him over the kerb which caused damage to his Mercedes. 

The 24-year-old then powered on to win the Grand Prix, as the Brit crossed the line in second. 

It was an incident which put Verstappen’s aggressive driving style on full display, but Rosberg suggested that Hamilton is no stranger to such antics either. 

“Max definitely started the season very aggressively,” he told Sky Sports.

“Barging Lewis out in Imola, [he did it] in a way that Lewis used to do to me.

“It’s one of Lewis’ great skills, and here he has an opponent doing to him what he usually does to others.

“Lewis is a warrior, he knows these kind of things. It’s like ‘ok, you did that to me today, and you wait, man’.”

Hamilton and Rosberg went through their own rollercoaster relationship, transitioning from teenage friends to F1 rivals when they raced alongside each other for Mercedes between 2013 and 2016. 

A number of tense battles ensued on track, while on-camera incidents such as Rosberg throwing a cap at Hamilton highlighted the intensity of the situation. 

The seven-time world champion’s relationship Verstappen is perhaps more straightforward, as any element of cooperation that exists with a team-mate is thrown out of the window. 

Rosberg agrees, telling Express Sport last year: “I think in my time it was [an] even more complicated [rivalry] because it’s within the same team.

“So at least here you have the whole team behind Verstappen, the whole team behind Lewis, and then it’s the team against team and that does make it a little bit different.”

Duel: Hamilton vs Verstappen will air on Sky Sports Main Event at 7pm and on demand.

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