JOIN USWorld championship leader Nico Rosberg said that his Mercedes team would sit down on Thursday night and clear the air between him and Lewis Hamilton after their battle in Bahrain.
Hamilton held off his clearly quicker team-mate over the final few laps to win his second race in a row after a ding-dong duel, during which Rosberg complained over the radio, “That’s not on”.
Rosberg admitted to reporters on Thursday that it had “taken a while” to get over coming second to Hamilton but added he was fully focused on Shanghai this weekend “because I know I can win here”.
“It was an enjoyable fight, during the race anyway,” added Rosberg, who scored his maiden victory in China two years ago.
Rosberg’s outburst came after the pair came “so close I couldn’t have got my hand between the two wheels,” he claimed on Thursday.
But he added they would iron out any differences during an evening team meeting.
“It’s completely normal that, as a team, when there are races when a lot has happened that you’re going to go and sit down and discuss,” he said.
“That’s very, very important to move forward. And we will do that and we will do that today. We will make sure everyone knows the different opinions, we will review to be able to put it completely behind us. It’s natural and needs to happen to move forward and be even stronger.”
Rosberg and Hamilton are no strangers to on-track battles, going back to their karting days as teenagers.
“There have been so many occasions,” said the German. “Even when we were 12 or 13 years old. And there have been ‘intense’ discussions afterwards. But we always with the necessary respect and then move on afterwards.”