Nico Rosberg reckons Sebastian Vettel will remember his German Grand Prix crash as one of the "darkest moments" in his Formula 1 career.
Vettel had been comfortably leading his home race – an event he has yet to win – but crashed out when rain hit the circuit. That allowed title rival Lewis Hamilton to go on and claim the victory, retaking the championship lead and opening up a 17-point lead after originally trailing by eight.
Fellow German Rosberg believes the pressure got to Vettel and he should have been more cautious like his rivals, rather than pushing to open up the gap to the chasing pack.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Photo gallery | Championship standings
"Vettel was such a favourite, he did everything perfectly until that lap in the race," Rosberg said in his latest Vlog. "Suddenly it started raining a bit but he had such an advantage, he could have taken out a little speed and played it safer. He pushed too much and shunted it and shoved it into the wall all on his own. Such a shame.
"I think he's going to remember that as one of the darkest moments of his whole career. In front of his home crowd here with such a chance to get a huge points haul over Lewis, he puts it away like that. That's so bad."
Rosberg described his former Mercedes team-mate's comeback from 14th to take the win "unbelievable" and expects many more exciting races as the season progresses.
"Then on the other side is Lewis. Never write off Lewis because he always comes back, wherever he is. He showed that again having started at the back, worked his way up, was hugely fast, made all the right decisions and showed fighting spirit and won the damn thing which is unbelievable.
"I think we're up for many more exciting races to come, because it's going to keep on going up and down even though at the moment Ferrari have such a a big power advnatge, five-tenths a second per lap in qualifying at the moment. It's huge. They've found something incredible in that engine," he added.
"20 per cent more power from the battery that they're extracting even though the battery power is limited by law in Formula 1, so it's really not easy to understand what they're doing, they've found something magical there, but the FIA says it's legal so we have to believe them."
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