Bore-rain - they finished only 4 seconds apart.
But crucially, Rosberg finished ahead. Fair enough though - this was MS's first race back.
Australia - car was damaged at turn 1.
Just how much damage was actually taken? I've read very little regarding the damage actually taken.
He was well behind Rosberg when his car broke, so I would count this as another beating at the hands of his team-mate.
And then we get to China. That car looked awful in his hands, ...
And yet Rosberg was running in 2nd place at the time. Once again, another beating at the hands of Rosberg.
The only race where MS can claim he didnt take a beating was in Australia and that was only because of alleged damage to his car. Had he not had taken damage to his car in that race I'm 100% sure he would've taken another beating.
The difference between a top line driver and a midfield driver is that the top line driver will extract the maximum out of the car in any given circumstance. No excuses. Obviously, as the car is adapted to his driving style, the car will pick up speed (in comparison to the team-mate).
Remember, this is MS we are talking about. Not some has-been who was owed a favour, so decided to drive an F1 car for a few weekends. MS has never been so comprehensively outperformed by a team-mate in his entire career (a decade and half).
And yet despite all that he held off The Messiah™ in a far superior car for several laps.
Hamilton did say that MS was very competitive when they raced. But, MS did eventually yield.
We're four races in. We haven't even started the European leg of the championship. It's his first year back after three seasons out. It's no shock that Rosberg is leading him right now.
True. But to be so far behind Rosberg (Rosberg - 50 pts, MS - 10 pts). No other pair of team-mates on the grid have such a big difference in point totals.
If I were you, I'd be more worried about Lewis Hamilton. Four races in, he's been outqualified three times and is 11 points behind the guy that half the world said in the run up to the season he would annihilate.
Button has done EXTREMELY well. Part of that is down to his astute decision making in wet/damp conditions. His decision making was the cause for both those race wins. In contrast, Hamilton has followed his team's guidelines on tyre choice and has come off 2nd best on both occassions.
Nobody can argue against the fact that in pretty much all the races so far this year, Hamilton has looked the "raciest" and it is only a matter of time that he will start winning races. The simple fact is that Hamilton doesnt have the same ability as Button, when making tyre choices, while racing. Button has a very cool/calm head and this is his biggest asset.
Hamilton's strength lies in his ability to overtake and make the car go faster than any other F1 driver can manage. Dry races should show this up. The only problem for Hamilton is that in the dry, he will have to deal with Vettel/RedBull.
