Rosberg hits back at Hamilton

London : Nico Rosberg has hit back at Lewis Hamilton after the Mercedes driver claimed the atmosphere within the team had improved since the 2016 champion’s retirement.

Hamilton and Rosberg were team-mates at the all-conquering Mercedes for three seasons with the pair having several run-ins, including incidents in Spain, Austria and Belgium.

Hamilton won the drivers’ championship in 2014 and 2015 but was stunned as Rosberg fought back to win in 2016.

Then to the surprise of many, Rosberg announced his retirement from racing and was then replaced by Valtteri Bottas.

And this season, Hamilton dominated his Finnish team-mate to win his fourth world championship and said of Rosberg’s exit: “It has helped the harmony in the team.

“On my part, it’s enabled me to enjoy my job a lot more. 

“But l think that has also come hand-in-hand with fighting another team.”

It has since been revealed Hamilton and Rosberg were threatened with the sack as a consequence of their fractious relationship.

It has since been revealed Hamilton and Rosberg were threatened with the sack as a consequence of their fractious relationship.

But Rosberg refuses to look at it negatively and when asked for his reaction to Hamilton’s comments, he opted to look for positives.

Rosberg told Motorsport.com: “I’ll read you a quote. This quote is from Lewis Hamilton: ‘When you have two strong drivers in the team as we had, well, when the battle is within the team, it’s like a hurricane with strong energy and it is just stuck in the room.’

“That’s a quote from Lewis and I’ll take that as a compliment!”