MONZA, Italy, (Reuters) – The Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton show rumbled into Monza yesterday and this time the Mercedes team mates kept their distance.
The Formula One title rivals could at least be said to be obeying orders after a week dominated by the fallout of their second-lap collision at the Belgian Grand Prix 11 days earlier.
Mercedes had read the riot act after Spa, where Rosberg hit Hamilton and effectively ended the Briton’s race and team hopes of a one-two finish, telling them they could race but contact on the track was not on.
They seemed to have taken the latter part of the admonition to heart when they attended an official news conference ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, their last race in Europe this season.
There was no public handshake for a start.
If expectations had soared to the point where some would not have been surprised to see the pair jogging in from separate corners, to pounding music and strobe lighting, reality soon reasserted itself.
In the end, it was not so much what they said as how they said it – a day when the body language offered itself for interpretation.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who had a stormy year as Hamilton’s team mate at McLaren in 2007, provided the buffer zone – sitting on the front row between the unsmiling German and his English rival.
Hamilton embraced the Spaniard, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder, and then amused himself taking a ‘selfie’ and picture of his audience using the Mercedes press officer’s mobile while Rosberg stared fixedly ahead.
The German had accepted responsibility last week for what he called an “error of judgement” and was handed an unspecified punishment by the team.
