Lewis Hamilton’s former team-mate Jenson Button believes the Briton will bounce back even stronger after he was beaten in Monaco by Nico Rosberg.
The German’s victory broke Hamilton’s run of four wins, but it went further than that after an incident on Saturday during qualifying and the pair are no longer on talking terms.
Hamilton is known for his emotional outbursts, but Button – who’s had first hand experience of them – says Hamilton always moves past them quickly and is stronger for it.
“I always remember with Lewis that when we had a tussle in a race, or there was an issue between us or with the team, he would have a really bad race and be quite outspoken and quite emotional about it,” he recalled.
“At the next race he would destroy me, he would come there and be stronger than ever,” the McLaren driver told Reuters.
Rosberg now has a four-point lead in the championship and will be hoping to extend that further in Canada with an unfocused and unsettled Hamilton potentially on the backfoot.
That won’t be the case though according to Button.
“This [win] has really helped Nico’s championship, breaking Lewis’s [run of] wins, but is Lewis strong enough to come back? I really do think he is. You will see an even more determined Lewis at the next race.
“The mind games people play on him will not work. Initially, he is quite an emotional character, initially it might hurt but he will come back stronger than ever,” he concluded.
