Rosberg: 'Hamilton showed masterclass racing, Bottas not aggressive enough'

Lewis Hamilton drove away pretty quickly from the start of the Spanish Grand Prix where his team mate immediately got other cars around the ears. Less than two corners later Valtteri Bottas was fourth and he had Sergio Perez next to him. That shows the difference between the two Mercedes drivers, says Nico Rosberg at Sky Sport F1.

Masterclass of Hamilton

"That was a Hamilton masterclass out there," begins the 2016 Champion over the six-time British champion. "Everything to perfection. The start, tyre management, the pace was phenomenal. Really impressive." Rosberg doesn't have much more words to say about it, because what Hamilton showed was again from the top shelf. About Bottas on the other hand, Rosberg says more or less the same as Doornbos did before: the title slips out of his hands.

"We really saw every little weakness in his armoury out there today. That's in wheel-to-wheel racing, just lacking a little bit of aggressivity, which we saw at the start and so he fell back behind Stroll. Just opening the door on the inside and Stroll went right through", and that's exactly where Bottas left it. His body language afterwards also spoke volumes according to Rosberg.

"He can feel the championship chance slipping away from him once again. Lewis is on this incredible momentum once again and Valtteri just has to find away to put that to an end with a bang, and put in a string of results." Whether the Finn is capable of that, that's a bit of a question. At least he has the material to challenge the Brit.

"It's always going to be tough fighting for a world championship with Lewis. But nevertheless Valtteri has a great car so it doesn't take much to bounce back. If he puts it on pole next race then, boom, you're back again with a great mental state. So it's ok for Valtteri, he just needs to keep fighting."

With one week no race it's waiting for the Belgian Grand Prix where Bottas gets another chance to open the attack on Hamilton. Actually he should have won in Spain to keep the gap small, but the championship isn't over yet.