Lewis Hamilton was voted sportsman of the year by GQ magazine, yet today he will sit alongside the team-mate who could beat him to become Formula One’s man of the year, the accolade the Englishman so desperately wants.
Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been selected to face the media at F1’s official press conference and they can expect a grilling about the events in Spa that spiralled from tense duel to all-out war in the space of two laps at the Belgian Grand Prix last month.
The Mercedes pair will be at Monza to prepare for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix and no one knows — least of all them — how events will unfold.
Despite being thrust into the spotlight this afternoon, neither man will want to be drawn on their relationship. It is understood that they met and shook hands at a sponsor event just days after Rosberg clipped Hamilton’s car, putting him out of the grand prix in Belgium and, as a result, widened the lead over his team-mate to 29 points.
Rosberg has been short of friends since Spa, forced into an apology and handed a six-figure fine as punishment for what was seen as the unforgivable offence by Mercedes of taking a team-mate out of a race.
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Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso has revealed to the official Ferrari website that he is in negotiations to extend his contract beyond his present deal, which ends at the close of 2016. He has ruled out a move to McLaren or any other team.