As reasons go, it seems a little slender, but Lewis Hamilton appears to have decided why Nico Rosberg wants to beat him so much.
“It’s because I’m good-looking, man,” the British driver said. “I’ve got the car, I’ve got the girlfriend. What can I say?” Probably best not to say much more, even in jest.
The Italian Grand Prix will be another fight to the finish, though, if practice yesterday was anything to go by. Hamilton topped the first session and Rosberg, his Mercedes team-mate, the second.
So that was honours even and left qualifying today poised for yet another showdown between the warring team-mates.
After the dust-up at the Belgian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Formula One fans are desperate for fisticuffs in Monza, although the chances are that they will probably be disappointed. Rosberg is likely to be much more cautious this time, for fear of causing the sort of stir he did at Spa after he clipped his team-mate’s car.
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There is no doubting the acrimony, though, and even Hamilton reckons that stories of the friendship between the team-mates who raced karts together was just PR spin. Now they want to beat the pants off each other.
“He wants to beat me more than anything,” Hamilton said. “He has made that very clear with all those interviews saying, ‘I hate losing to Lewis’. Me, I just want to win. It doesn’t matter who it is next to me.”