Lewis Hamilton Loses Motivation When Things Don't Go Well, Rosberg Says

Lewis Hamilton lost 18 points in the Formula 1 Drivers’ championship to Sebastian Vettel in two races and is now one point behind the Ferrari driver as they head into the eighth race of the 2018 season.

The Briton had taken a 17-point lead in the championship after back-to-back wins in Azerbaijan and Spain and was the favorite coming into the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend, having won the race six times in the past including three consecutive wins in the last three seasons.

Mercedes were downplaying their favorite tag as they were unable to introduce their new upgraded power unit as planned, but nonetheless, they were expected to be in contention. Both the Mercedes cars displayed good pace in the Friday practice sessions and looked like the team to beat going into qualifying and the race on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

However, it was not to be as Vettel took pole position ahead of Valtteri Bottas, with Hamilton only managing a fourth place on the grid. It got worse for the British driver during the race as he was overtaken by Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo during the pit stops.

Nico Rosberg, who was the Briton’s teammate at Mercedes and the only driver to beat him on the same machinery, admitted that it was an off-weekend for the four-time world champion. However, he also suggested that it is a common trait for Hamilton to lose motivation when things do not go his way during a race weekend.

“Lewis had one of those off-weekends totally. OK he had an engine thing in the race, but even so qualifying was still off,” Rosberg said after Sunday’s race in Canada, as quoted by PlanetF1. “Typical for Lewis – these phases, he loses a bit of motivation when things don’t go well.”

Rosberg, meanwhile, reserved special praise for Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver had a clean weekend after his recent struggles. The Dutchman finished third behind Vettel and Bottas and it was just his second podium of the season.

Verstappen struggled with consistency this campaign, and most of his troubles were due to driver errors. He admitted before the race that he was frustrated owing to all the talk being about his crashes.

The 2016 F1 world champion, who is currently retired, praised the Red Bull driver and believes he showed a bit of the “Hamilton attitude” when he qualified in third and ensured he held his position even in the race.

“Verstappen – epic weekend,” the former Mercedes driver said. “He showed a bit of Lewis Hamilton attitude to me this weekend. When Lewis is angry, he is at his best. He channels it into an unbelievable performance and I think Verstappen had some of that this weekend, so he gained this extra focus from the word go."

“He was first all the way through [practice], great qualifying, and finished third. I think that was a really good weekend from him,” he added.