A look back at how the World Championship battle between the Mercedes team-mates has ebbed and flowed at each race
Monday 1 December 2014 10:19, UK
A look back at how the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has ebbed and flowed at each race this season.
Nico Rosberg stormed into a 25-point advantage with victory in Australia after Lewis Hamilton’s race lasted just two laps before he was forced to retire when his car malfunctioned. Hamilton's demise allowed the German to cruise to an unchallenged victory as the dominance of the Mercedes W05 instantly became apparent. Having been the only non-Mercedes driver to get within 1.5 seconds of Hamilton in qualifying, Daniel Ricciardo, who was later excluded from the results, finished nearly 25 seconds behind Rosberg, a vast deficit which underlined Mercedes' substantial pace advantage.
Hamtilon: 0; Rosberg: 25. Rosberg leads by 25.
After the frustration of Albert Park, Hamilton hit back in Malaysia with a formidable victory of 17 seconds over Rosberg to cut the gap at the top by seven points. The 2008 World Champion qualified on pole and beat his team-mate to the flag by a commanding 17.3 seconds. Rosberg had only started third after being out-qualified by Sebastian Vettel, but passed the German on the opening lap to set up the first one-two finish of the season for Mercedes.
Hamilton: 25; Rosberg: 43. Rosberg leads by: 18.
Under the floodlights in the desert, the Mercedes team-mates went head-to-head for the first time with a riveting race-long battle. Hamilton overtook pole-sitter Rosberg into Turn One and then fended him off around the outside of Turn Three on the opening lap. The German struck back at the same corner on lap 19, but Hamilton got back ahead almost immediately at Turn Four. They came together again on lap 52, but Hamilton was able to fend off his team-mate. Just. His second win of the season saw Hamilton cut the gap by another seven points.
Hamilton: 50; Rosberg: 61. Rosberg leads by: 11.
Hamilton made it a hat-trick of victories for the first time in his career as he cruised to another easy win. Starting from pole and with Rosberg having to fight his way through from fourth, Hamilton led from start to finish without the need to check his mirrors once. Rosberg trailed home 18 seconds adrift, but it was the third consecutive one-two for Mercedes to once again underline their dominance over the rest of the field.
Hamilton: 75; Rosberg: 79. Rosberg leads by: 4.
Hamilton was on pole again at the Circuit de Catalunya, but this was a much more closely-fought affair with the Englishman having to fend off a late charge from Rosberg. The German opted for a different tyre strategy to Hamilton for the middle stint of the race, giving him the faster medium tyre at the end of the grand prix. He quickly closed a gap of four seconds to the leader, but Hamilton held on to win by 0.6 seconds and take his first ever win at Barcelona. It also gave him the lead in the championship for the first time in 2014.
Whilst the gap between the team-mates was minimal, they had pulled nearly 50 seconds clear of Ricciardo as they pushed each other on, showing that the Silver Arrows had pace to spare.
Hamilton: 100; Rosberg: 97. Hamilton leads by: 3.
In Monaco tensions erupted for the first time after Rosberg slid out of qualifying, triggering a yellow flag at Mirabeau which took away the opportunity for Hamilton to improve his time and claim pole for himself. The German said it was a mistake and the stewards agreed, but Hamilton wasn’t convinced - leading to his infamous "we are not friends; we are colleagues” statement to Sky F1.
With overtaking nigh-on impossible around the streets of the Principality, Rosberg had track position and eased to a nine-second victory to retake the lead of the championship. After the race, tensions remained high, with Hamilton and Rosberg failing to embrace each other on the podium and Fleet Street subsequently declaring 'Mercedes braced for war'.
Hamilton: 118; Rosberg: 122. Rosberg leads by: 4.
Mercedes' dominance came to an end as F1 landed in North America as both W05s showed signs of unreliability. Hamilton was forced to retire from the race with brake failure, whilst Rosberg nursed his car to the finish to take second spot behind Ricciardo and stretch his advantage.
That race wasn't without its own controversial moment, however, after Rosberg cut the final chicane under pressure from Hamilton. The German said it was an honest mistake and the stewards felt he had not gained a lasting advantage. How critical remaining ahead and in clean, cool air was to the German not suffering the same brake failure as his team-mate remains the subject of debate.
Hamilton: 118; Rosberg: 140. Rosberg leads by: 22.
For the first time all season a Mercedes car didn't start the race on the front-row of the grid as Williams took the top two spots. Rosberg started from third whilst, after locking up and spinning at Turn Two, Hamilton lined up just ninth.
The two Silver Arrows cars would work their way to the front with Rosberg beating Hamilton by 1.9 seconds at the flag – the exact amount of time he lost through slower pitstops.
Conservative pit calls perhaps cost Williams the chance to capitalise on their lofty grid positions, which allowed Mercedes to return to winning ways relatively unchallenged. At 29 points, Rosberg's title lead was the biggest to date in 2014.
Hamilton: 136; Rosberg: 165. Rosberg leads by: 29.
Another qualifying mistake from Hamilton came at Silverstone as he abandoned a final flying lap as the drying track suddenly improved. "I just didn’t feel good. No other reason for it,” was the Briton’s reasoning for backing out. His team-mate thought it was worth a shot and duly took pole. “We were losing three or four seconds in the last corners when it was very wet so there was an opportunity to make a real improvement and that I should keep going,” the German explained.
But Rosberg's Saturday coup was to count for nothing on Sunday when a gearbox failure resulted in the championship leader's first retirement of the season. Hamilton made no mistake as he capitalised on his team-mate's misfortune to cruise to victory with a winning margin of over 30 seconds to Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton: 161; Rosberg: 165. Rosberg leads by: 4.
There was more qualifying woe at Hockenheim for Hamilton who crashed out in Q1 due to a brake failure and lined up just 15th having been unable to take part in Q2. Rosberg, meanwhile, started from pole position and duly converted his advantage into a victory of over 20 seconds from Bottas. Hamilton fought back through the pack with some robust and aggressive moves to finish third to limit the damage. He may even have been higher had a Safety Car been deployed to recover the stranded car of Adrian Sutil late in the race. It wasn't, and the deficit to Rosberg increased again.
Hamilton: 176; Rosberg: 190. Rosberg leads by: 14.
Hungary witnessed yet more qualifying drama for Hamilton as his car caught fire at the start of Q1, resulting in a pitlane start. Rosberg started from pole, but was badly caught out by the timing of the Safety Car's deployment which allowed those cars behind to pit and get ahead of him.
There were tensions over the pits-to-car radio when Mercedes asked Hamilton to let Rosberg, who was running a different strategy at the time, past, but the Briton didn’t yield to his team-mate. The pair would come together again later in the race with Hamilton keeping the German at bay on the last lap to take the final podium spot.
Hamilton: 191; Rosberg: 202. Rosberg leads by: 11.
Spa-Francorchamps saw arguably the most dramatic moment of the Mercedes 2014 intra-team battle as Rosberg and Hamilton made contact when the German challenged for the lead at Les Combes on the second lap.
Hamilton's tyre was instantly punctured during the collision and, as he tried to get back to the pits without losing too much time, the Briton’s tyre came apart, causing critical damage to the bodywork. On this occasion, there was to be no recovery drive from Hamilton and, after struggling to get back into contention, he retired from the race with six laps remaining.
With a new front-wing bolted on, and the stewards declining to punish his mistake, Rosberg was able to continue and extended his title lead over Hamilton by finishing in second place behind Daniel Ricciardo. But the Spa story didn't end there, however, with Hamilton telling reporters late on Sunday night that, in a Mercedes post-mortem, Rosberg had admitted to causing the collision "on purpose".
Hamilton: 191; Rosberg: 220. Rosberg leads by: 29.
With tensions still high at Mercedes, Hamilton took his first pole position since Spain at Monza, but made a poor start to hand Rosberg the lead. He fought his way back through the pack and began to catch Rosberg, despite calls from the team to save his tyres and play a longer game.
As he closed in, Rosberg apparently cracked under the pressure, out-braking his Mercedes at the chicane to hand his team-mate victory.
Hamilton: 216; Rosberg: 238. Rosberg leads by: 22.
Hamilton was on pole under the lights in Singapore with Rosberg alongside him once again. Disaster would strike the German, though, as an electronic glitch prevented him from pulling away on the formation lap and he was pushed into the pitlane for the start.
With the problems badly affecting the W05’s performance Rosberg struggled to even pass the Marussias and Caterhams at the back of the field. The fact that he was told to stall the car on the way into the pits to allow the team to carry out the stop demonstrated the extent of his woes and having been unable to continue was put out of his misery on lap 15.
Up at the front, there was no stopping Hamilton – although his victory wasn’t entirely comfortable as a Safety Car deployment meant he had to push hard to reopen a gap ahead of his final stop – and retake the lead of the championship.
Hamilton: 241; Rosberg: 238. Hamilton leads by: 3
Although Rosberg would take pole, it was Hamilton who continued his winning run at a soaking Suzuka.
In the treacherous conditions, Rosberg lead the pack around behind the Safety Car before the race was suspended. Rosberg continued to lead after the restart but by lap 25 he was struggling for grip and Hamilton closed to within DRS range. Two laps later, he swept around the outside of Rosberg to take the lead at the first corner.
The race would be stopped early after Jules Bianchi’s accident and the extension of Hamilton's championship lead was a distant afterthought as the paddock waited anxiously for news of the stricken Marussia driver.
Hamilton: 266; Rosberg: 256. Hamilton leads by: 10.
A dominant performance from Hamilton saw him top P2, P3, Q1, Q2, Q3 and lead the race from start to finish on F1’s maiden visit to Sochi.
A lunge and subsequent lock-up from Rosberg at Turn Two on the opening lap forced him to pit to replace his flat-spotted tyres. Having dropped to the back of the field, Rosberg would somehow make his tyres last 52 laps to reach the finish without pitting again and take second place to limit the damage to his title chances.
Hamilton: 291; Rosberg: 274. Hamilton leads by: 17.
Rosberg took pole in Texas, but Hamilton continued his run of victories with a fifth consecutive win.
The German led during the opening exchanges, but a tweak to Hamilton's front-wing at the opening round of stops proved to be the turning point. It gave Hamilton the confidence he needed to get past his team-mate on lap 24 with a late move into Turn 12 and it was an advantage he would never relinquish as he extended his title lead again.
Hamilton: 316; Rosberg: 292. Hamilton leads by: 24.
Needing to halt his team-mate's momentum, Rosberg had almost the perfect weekend in Brazil as he topped every session at Interlagos. All that was missing from the ‘grand slam’ was the fastest lap of the race.
Rosberg had vowed to learn from failing to convert pole position once again in Austin and was able to keep his team-mate at bay over the 71 laps – albeit assisted by a spin from Hamilton while the Briton was pushing for the lead ahead of a pitstop.
Rosberg's triumph - his first since July - narrowed the gap heading into the season finale where the German knows he will most likely have to win to claim his maiden title.
Hamilton: 334; Rosberg: 317. Hamilton leads by: 17.
It all came down the season finale in Abu Dhabi then and after Hamilton topped both of Friday’s practice sessions Rosberg struck back on Saturday. The German was quickest in final practice and stormed to a dominant pole by nearly four tenths of a second.
That advantage was short lived on Sunday when Hamilton made a lightning start to storm into the lead of the race and make Rosberg’s task all the more difficult.
Rosberg’s side of the garage hoped a long middle stint would see their man leap ahead of his team-mate, but an ERS failure put pay to the German’s lingering title hopes. The team told him to retire the car, but Rosberg battled on and eventually crossed the line 14th and a lap down.
That left Hamilton free at the front to ease to victory, controlling the gap to Felipe Massa behind as he claimed his second World Championship.
Hamilton: 384; Rosberg: 317. Hamilton wins by: 67.
