The ‘small argument’ Rosberg thinks Hamilton can make about Russell crash

Hamilton and Russell dramatically came to blows in a first corner collision that left the seven-time world champion stricken in the gravel, and his teammate at the back of the grid in a nightmare start for Mercedes. 

After the race, Hamilton took full responsibility for the collision and apologised to Russell, who staged an impressive recovery drive to fourth. 

"George thought the race was over, but actually [it] turns out [it wasn’t]," the 2016 world champion told Sky.

"This is going to be interesting to analyse obviously, Lewis has the soft tyres so he just tries to go round the outside but it’s three people going into turn one.

"It was 100% Lewis’ error there, it’s a slight misjudgment, it’s not a big misjudgment, [he] doesn’t leave quite enough space for George there, so it’s all on Lewis. 

“He already admitted to [it] and kind of took responsibility for it.”

Hamilton used his faster, grippier soft tyres to make the best start out of the top three and draw alongside Russell and Max Verstappen, who both started on mediums, as they ran three-wide into Turn 1. 

Asked if it was a risk by Mercedes to put their drivers on different compounds, Rosberg replied: “Possibly yes, because you put the guy behind who’s on the softer compound. 

“Lewis would have gone P1, I think, around the outside. He was already level with Verstappen and going so much faster. He had a real chance to be P1 after Turn 1.”

And Rosberg reckons that factor will give Hamilton a small case to take to Mercedes when they review the incident internally. 

“He was coming from the outside so had a much wider radius. Verstappen was coming in tight. So by the time they collided, Lewis was already level with Verstappen,” Rosberg added.

“That’s a small argument that he will be able to bring to the team in an internal discussion, and say: perhaps we should have been smarter and we should have asked George to stay behind Verstappen and give me that opportunity, with my softs, to go for it’.”

Rosberg also praised Hamilton’s “skill” after suffering what was only his sixth first-lap retirement across his 17-year F1 career. 

“Can you believe it? The skill! In his whole career he’s only gone out six times on Lap 1,” he said.