Rosberg plays down Hamilton rivalry

Nico Rosberg has played down his supposed feud with Lewis Hamilton, insisting that the current world champion is a good person off the circuit despite four years as partners together at Mercedes when they continuously argued on and off the F1 track.

Rosberg won the world championship back in 2016 only to announce his shock retirement not long afterwards, leaving Hamilton as the sole Mercedes driver. They didn't hide their dislike for one another during that season, and even collided on the track during the Spanish Grand Prix, with Silver Arrows advisor Niki Lauda blaming Rosberg for the incident.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has continuously spoken of crunch talks which were held with Hamilton after that season to make sure a more harmonious partnership could be attained in 2017.

Rosberg, however, has claimed that racing against Hamilton was 'awesome' during that campaign.

"That’s why I was racing for that kind of battle…

"Against one of the best of all time in the same car as you - awesome. And then to come out beating him in the very end there’s nothing better than that, it’s not possible.

"That’s why it gave me such fulfilment for my career because it could not have ended in a better way and the opponent counts in that.

Rosberg was responding to questions during a YouTube Q&A, and was diplomatic in his answer when asked if Hamilton was 'annoying'.

“Is Hamilton annoying? You know Lewis and I were really good friends back in the day," he claimed.

“I still have a lot of respect for him and always will have.

“In private he’s a good guy so of course it’s always different the way you get perceived on camera and the way you are in the big F1 world.

“But in private I can say he’s a good guy with some good values so I hope one day with time we can get back to getting on better.”