NICO ROSBERG has admitted that Lewis Hamilton made winning the World Championship as hard as possible at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - but it was an impressive display of skill.
Lewis Hamilton got to the front of the field and could have driven away from his team-mate but instead slowed down.
Knowing he needed to put two cars between himself and Rosberg, the Brit attempted to back him into the path of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, directly disobeying multiple team orders.
However, Rosberg hung on to second place and claimed his first world championship - but refused to criticise Hamilton's lack of team spirit after he ignore a number of senior Mercedes staff telling him to stop slowing down.
"Lewis was using all his skill to do it perfectly, so there was absolutely no way for me to manage to get by, so of course I thought about [letting Vettel past to put pressure on him up] but it was just pointless so there was no way," Rosberg said.
"He did it in a very good way, in a perfect way."
Rosberg and Hamilton have battled for superiority in F1 ever since the Brit signed from McLaren in 2013.
In their first season as team-mates they finished 4th and 6th but since then they have dominated the top two spots on the podium.
Hamilton beat Rosberg to the title in 2014 and 2015 before the German finally got one over on him in 2016.
And he admitted it felt pretty special to beat Hamilton, who has rivalled him from a very early age.
"It feels like I’ve been racing him forever and always he’s just managed to edge me out and get the title even when we were small in go-karts," Rosberg added.
"And he’s just an amazing driver and of course one of the best in history so it’s unbelievably special to beat him because the level is so high and that makes this even more more satisfying for me."
Knowing he needed to put two cars between himself and Rosberg, the Brit attempted to back him into the path of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, directly disobeying multiple team orders.
However, Rosberg hung on to second place and claimed his first world championship - but refused to criticise Hamilton's lack of team spirit after he ignore a number of senior Mercedes staff telling him to stop slowing down.
"Lewis was using all his skill to do it perfectly, so there was absolutely no way for me to manage to get by, so of course I thought about [letting Vettel past to put pressure on him up] but it was just pointless so there was no way," Rosberg said.
"He did it in a very good way, in a perfect way."
Rosberg and Hamilton have battled for superiority in F1 ever since the Brit signed from McLaren in 2013.
In their first season as team-mates they finished 4th and 6th but since then they have dominated the top two spots on the podium.
Hamilton beat Rosberg to the title in 2014 and 2015 before the German finally got one over on him in 2016.
"It feels like I’ve been racing him forever and always he’s just managed to edge me out and get the title even when we were small in go-karts," Rosberg added.
"And he’s just an amazing driver and of course one of the best in history so it’s unbelievably special to beat him because the level is so high and that makes this even more more satisfying for me."
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