Nico Rosberg believes he can emerge as Mercedes’s lead driver and beat Lewis Hamilton once everything comes together for him.
The German looked the stronger of the two as the season began after he took a race win and three straight pole positions. Things changed following the Monaco Grand Prix however as the Briton finally got to grips with his new team and car.
In the five races after, Hamilton has taken four poles and finished ahead of Rosberg at all but one – thanks to a puncture in Britain which handed the lead to his team-mate.
Whilst Rosberg acknowledged Hamilton’s recent supremacy, he believes certain issues have stopped him from delivering his best.
“Lewis has been doing a really, really good job and he’s on it,” Rosberg said. “But that was clear from the beginning he was going to be a tough competitor, so he’s just done really, really well.”
When asked if he could turn the tables in the championship, where he currently lags his team-mate by 43 points, he added: “From my side, [it’s] just a bit of a phase where not everything is going 100% right. I go through these phases as a driver and come on out the other side then there’ll be a phase where everything does go right like at the beginning of the year in qualifying [when I was beating Hamilton].
“Even though the racing didn’t go well back then for our struggles that we used to have in the races, qualifying was going right.
“I’m very confident that the phase will come again.”
