Monaco GP: The trial of Nico Rosberg

Did he or didn't he? Whether or not Nico Rosberg had deliberately brought out the yellow flags during the final minute of Q3 to prevent Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton from snatching pole position was the only question that really mattered during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Everyone had an opinion, although Formula 1's big names were wary about voicing their thoughts in public. Except, of course, for Hamilton, who made it very obvious that he thought his team-mate and, apparently, former friend committed a professional foul.

Nico Rosberg's drive to victory on Sunday, shadowed for much of the race by the second Mercedes before pulling away in the closing stages thanks to Hamilton getting something caught in his left eye, was very well-executed. But history will only allow this race to be viewed through the prism of what happened during qualifying.

Some condemned Rosberg for his trip up the Mirabeau escape road, which ruined his already-unimpressive final flying lap and led to yellow flags that forced Hamilton, a few seconds behind, to abandon his lap.

Others argued it was an honest mistake. The stewards, for what it is worth, deemed that there was no offence committed, although it's fair to say that it was a challenging case to examine.

THE FACTS

The battle between Rosberg and Hamilton had been tight throughout the weekend. While Hamilton had the edge in the middle sector, which runs from the entry of the Mirabeau right-hander before the hairpin to just before Swimming Pool, Rosberg was generally stronger in sector one. With the final sector very close, the battle was always going to be tight.

On their first runs in the top 10 qualifying shootout, Rosberg had been 59 thousandths of a second faster than Hamilton. He was ahead on the road on his final run, and was pushing hard.

Rosberg was cleared by the stewards, but Hamilton did not agree © XPB

After a good run through Ste Devote, he was scruffy and off-line at Massenet/Casino, meaning that by the time he got onto the short straight leading to Mirabeau, he would have known he was down.

Rosberg then locked up and took to the escape road at Mirabeau, while Hamilton was forced to abandon his lap.

THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION

Rosberg had the means, the motive and the opportunity to cause a yellow flag deliberately.

He would have known he was offline through the left/right combination past the casino and the split times on his dash showed he was down. The prosecution contends that, having moved to the right of the track at the exit of Casino Square to avoid the hump in the road, when he pulled the car back across he deliberately attempted to destabilise the car through steering movements that were proactive and designed to force him to go off rather than reacting to what the car was doing.

Rosberg did brake later, his line around the hump was a little different to that of his pole position lap and, once he had sailed up the escape road, he then reversed in a pointless attempt to rejoin the track. Given there was insufficient time to make it back to start/finish in time, there was no reason to do this.

As Hamilton was faster in the first sector, Rosberg's strongest, all the indications are that he would have taken pole and, almost certainly, victory as a result.

"I was on target [for pole]," said Hamilton. "I remember starting the last lap and said 'this is it, this is going to be the lap'. I was two and a half tenths up and didn't get to finish it."

Rosberg knew where Hamilton was relative to him on the track and that it was highly unlikely that Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel would have been able to make the front row. Therefore, it was a simple task to put the car off, avoid any damage and guarantee pole.

THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

Rosberg was trying hard, very hard on his final lap. At Ste Devote, he had carried prodigious speed and flirted with the barrier on the exit, giving him a great run up Beau Rivage.

But at Massenet, he ran a little wide, compromising his line through the right-hander at Casino. Anything he had gained at Ste Devote had been lost, and then some. Rosberg had failed to capitalise on his biggest strength, pace in sector one.

The scruffy run through Casino meant that his trajectory around the hump in the road was a little different, leading to him trying to pull the car back across to take the ideal wide entry into Mirabeau at a fractionally bigger angle.

Hamilton was convinced pole was his © XPB

On-board camera footage showed he did brake later, but that was not the wrong thing to do. He had already taken a big risk at Ste Devote and with the time lost subsequently needed to go for it. So when he braked, the rear was a little unsettled, meaning that while shedding speed Rosberg was struggling to keep the rear in line.

He attempted to make the corner, but realising that he couldn't, and not wanting to put his car in the wall, he took to the escape road. There, he reversed back onto the circuit to minimise the time the yellow flags were required for.

"I just locked up the outside front, I think it was, or the inside, I'm not sure [it was the inside]," said Rosberg. "That put me off line. I was still trying to make it but in the last moment I had to turn out because I was going to hit the tyre wall. It was close but I managed to get into the escape road.

"It's not the way I wanted to go and I honestly thought that it was over when I went off the road. That definitely takes away some of the pleasure of it, but in the end first is first."

THE OFFICIAL VERDICT

Rosberg was summoned to the FIA stewards amid suspicions that he had gone off deliberately to trigger the yellow flags, and guarantee pole in a move reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's at Rascasse in 2006.

He was exonerated, by the four-man stewarding panel, including F1 veteran Derek Warwick.

"The stewards examined video and telemetry data from the team and FIA and could find no evidence of any offence related to the Turn 5 incident," read a statement.

Had this been a dispute between two teams, would the verdict have been the same? Perhaps not.

HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?

The Rosberg versus Hamilton rivalry has become increasingly strained over the course of the first six races of the season. The unique intensity of the title head-to-head, with the pair in their own private battle for victory means that they currently just have to turn up to finish first and second.

It has emerged that in their scrap during the Bahrain GP, Rosberg used an aggressive engine mode without authorisation in his attempt to pass. In Spain, it was the other way round, with Hamilton pulling the same trick to ensure he stayed ahead.

Both drivers, Hamilton in particular, appear to be suspicious of the other, creating an atmosphere of distrust. It's perfectly credible that Rosberg might deliberately trigger a yellow flag to secure pole in this atmosphere. But it is equally possible that it was a figment of Hamilton's imagination, an honest mistake rendered as something more sinister through paranoia.

THE CONSEQUENCES

Whatever the reasons for Rosberg's excursion, it earned him a clear run to victory in Sunday's race. A good start laid the foundation for a game of cat and mouse early on, with Hamilton tracking his prey. But this is Monaco, so passing is a near-impossibility.

Rosberg and Hamilton, now ex-friends © XPB

Inevitably, there was a flashpoint in the race. When Adrian Sutil's Sauber crashed at the chicane on his 24th lap, the two Mercedes drivers were on their 25th and not far off lapping him.

So they both saw the remains of the Sauber and the debris shortly after Sutil had gone off, and will have recognised the possibility of a safety car.

Neither pitted on that lap, and headed into the pits on the next one. Realistically, it would have been difficult for Mercedes to make that call so quickly, especially if it required a quick double stop, which is what happened on lap 28.

The highest-placed driver who did dive for the pits was Jenson Button, who was close to 40 seconds behind the two Mercedes at the time. Hamilton attempted to make the pit call, but the team told him to stay out. He therefore believed that he should have been able to stop on that lap and jump Rosberg into the lead.

"Normally, under the crash we could have come in and I really should have come in, but the team didn't call us in," said Hamilton after the race, having furiously questioned the call over the radio: "We really should have pitted that lap."

When the race got back underway, it was status quo with Hamilton behind Rosberg. There he stayed, until, that is, he started to struggle with vision, often having to drive with his left eye closed thanks to getting dirt in it. Suddenly, there was a third party in what was previously an all-Mercedes gunfight.

Ricciardo closed what had been a 10-second gap very rapidly. On lap 65, Hamilton lost an alarming 2.2s. Even on a tight track like Monaco, there was the very real possibility that Ricciardo might be able to find a way past before Hamilton managed to shed whatever particle it was in his eye and knuckle down to keeping it tight in the final few laps.

Hamilton's struggles did give Rosberg some breathing space. Rosberg has been heavier on fuel use compared to his team-mate throughout the season and at times was being told his fuel situation was "critical" over the radio.

"The fuel was very critical and caught me off guard a little bit," he said. "It was a major change that I had to make and, especially with Lewis being so close behind, it was a tough moment because I had to change the driving style completely, use different gears, different lifting and coasting. Everything was different. But the team managed that well and got me to do what I needed to do."

Rosberg adapted well, so it was an easy victory. It was only his second of the season and first in a straight fight with Hamilton of 2014. His Australian GP victory, remember, had come in the absence of his team-mate who had retired early on with an engine problem.

But the question remained: was this a straight fight?

THE VERDICT

Only Rosberg can be absolutely sure what he did or did not do in the final minute of qualifying.

Rosberg got under Hamilton's skin © LAT

Hamilton, having seen the data, appears absolutely certain he was hard done by and, irrespective of what caused Rosberg's off at Mirabeau, he can legitimately be frustrated at missing out on the chance to make good on his promise to take pole position.

Expert witnesses differ, with some believing Rosberg made an honest mistake at an unfortunate moment and others considering the curious steering inputs to be a smoking gun. It certainly looked dubious. But this is not what the trial of Rosberg is really about.

He headed to Monaco having lost the championship lead and been defeated four times on the bounce by Hamilton. The momentum had swung away from him and he desperately needed to win as a statement that, yes, he could cut it up against Hamilton.

If he did deliberately go off, while unsporting it shows a streak of ruthlessness that makes him more formidable competitor for the increasingly intense title fight that is to come.

If he didn't, then he deserves credit for his strong banker lap and converting the fortunate pole position it gave him into victory. On top of that, he appears to have got under Hamilton's skin.

The Monaco GP weekend was not a test of Rosberg's ethics, but of his title credentials. And he passed with flying colours.

Hamilton's virtuosity behind the wheel is well-known, he has proved he can win a world title. Rosberg hasn't as yet, but in Monaco he took a big step to showing he has the grit needed to give Hamilton a real run for his money.