Tension within Mercedes team as Rosberg wins Monaco Grand Prix

Vision problems add to frustration for second-placed Hamilton after priority given to German team-mate following Sutil’s accident

Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg of Germany  celebrates winning the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.  Photograph: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini
Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg of Germany celebrates winning the Monaco F1 Grand Prix. Photograph: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

A clearly angry and frustrated Lewis Hamilton did not shake hands with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg after the German won his second straight Monaco Grand Prix from pole position. Hamilton celebrated his second place a distance away from the champagne-spraying Rosberg.

Instead of healing the relationship between the two Mercedes drivers, the Monaco Grand Prix appeared to make matters even worse.

Hamilton thought he should have been brought in earlier after an accident for Adrian Sutil that led to the emergence of the second safety car. When Mercedes pitted both their drivers, Rosberg came in first. Sight problems And towards the end of the race he suffered a vision problem as Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo closed to challenge him for second place.

“What’s up, Lewis?” his team asked him. Hamilton replied: “I can’t see out of my left eye.” A short time later he was told how close the challenging Australian was. He replied: “I don’t care about Ricciardo – how close am I to Nico?” But by that time he was a hopeless 5.9 seconds behind the leader.

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The fifth straight one-two result for Mercedes enabled Rosberg to leapfrog back in front of Hamilton in the drivers’ championship. He was three points behind at the start of the race and is now four points ahead.

The relationship between the two was still strained at the start of the race following the qualifying incident on Saturday, when the yellow flags that followed Rosberg’s mistake at Mirabeau forced Hamilton to abort what looked like being a pole-winning lap.

Rosberg was later cleared of any wrongdoing but paddock opinion was split concerning his culpability. Hamilton said then that he would have to take a page out of Ayrton Senna’s book. But after the race he described that as a joke.

In the race Rosberg did not come under any serious pressure from Hamilton. With eight retirements, Marussia took their first ever points in Formula One, with Jules Bianchi finishing ninth. Guardian Service