Rosberg was right to stand up to Hamilton

When it comes to wheel-to-wheel combat, Lewis Hamilton has taught Nico Rosberg a few harsh lessons in their time together fighting for world championships.

One of the main things the three-time world champion has made clear is 'If you want to overtake me around the outside, it's not going to work out'. First lap skirmishes at Suzuka and Austin in late-2015, and Montreal 2016 were prime examples.

Rosberg needed to bite back to prevent himself becoming his team-mate's doormat, because it was becoming clear Hamilton was prepared to take more liberties whenever the two Silver Arrows did battle. The longer it went on like that without a response, the more established Rosberg's position as the soft touch in the team would become. The tables needed to turn.

Lap 71 at the Red Bull Ring last Sunday presented the ideal opportunity. It was the final lap instead of the first, and you can imagine what was going through Rosberg's mind when Hamilton attacked him to the outside, after the race leader had correctly moved to the middle of the track to block the inside line on the final lap.

Following a mistake from Rosberg at the first corner, heading into Turn 2 Hamilton put himself in that precarious position he'd so often punished Rosberg for attempting in the past. He was wise enough to suspect a bit of payback, hence he delayed his turn-in as much as he felt was possible. Contesting the apex with Rosberg was unlikely to have worked out, and Hamilton was smart enough to know that.

Just a few laps earlier Rosberg had been on the receiving end of such treatment when he tried to snatch the lead from Max Verstappen at the same spot. Verstappen's response to the Mercedes appearing on the outside was textbook - he hung Rosberg out to dry on the exit of the corner, easing his car across as was his right. Rosberg ran out of road, just like he had in those previous encounters with Hamilton.

Verstappen has just 28 starts to his name in F1, while Rosberg has 194. Yet the latter looked like the newcomer when he tried to outmuscle Hamilton to hang on to victory in Austria. Rosberg's explanation of "I was on the inside - I dictate" is true to a point, but you give up that right if you don't make at least some effort to take the corner on a normal line.

Rather than waiting for the exit of the corner to squeeze Hamilton, he tried to get his elbows out on the way in to Turn 2, leading to the clumsy collision. Brake problems or otherwise - and he seemed to brake late enough and well enough until he decided not to turn in - it ended up hurting his own race more than his championship rival's. Hamilton went on to win, and Rosberg limped home fourth before being punished by the stewards.

Had Rosberg taken the more conventional approach of running Hamilton out of road on the exit, while the Brit might not have appreciated the move in the heat of the moment battling for victory, deep down he'd have at least been able to accept that he - and pretty much any other racer - would have done the same.

There are eight-year-old kids racing karts who know how to pull that move off. For years at that level it's been known as "feed him the grass" if someone tries to get around the outside of you. You're taught that it's a necessary evil in battle from a very early age, and if you're not dishing it out, someone will be doing it to you instead.

Over their time racing together at Mercedes, with every forceful move Hamilton has pulled, the need has increased for Rosberg to prove he had something in response. Team bosses would shudder at the thought, but effectively Rosberg needed to show Hamilton that next time he'd be prepared to crash rather than simply be driven off the track.

The Austrian GP presented that opportunity, but Rosberg fluffed his lines.

The scenario has echoes of Spa 2014, the first time these two came together when contesting the lead at Les Combes on the opening lap. Rosberg clipped Hamilton's left-rear tyre with his front wing, and the aftermath of the clash allowed Red Bull to mug Mercedes for victory with Daniel Ricciardo.

Rosberg felt the wrath of the Mercedes bosses after that collision, and he never truly recovered his momentum in the 2014 title race. That day, Hamilton emerged from behind-closed-doors talks at the circuit claiming the German had said he did it to prove a point. Unfortunately, like in Austria last weekend, all he did was prove that he's not particularly cunning when it comes to these moments of combat.

However, where Spa 2014 and Red Bull Ring 2016 differ is that Hamilton survived the most recent clash unscathed, and that was crucial to the narrative that followed after the race. It was not in Hamilton's interest to fan the flames or to hit out in public. He was the victim, but he had the race victory - at a circuit where he admits Rosberg has often had the upper hand on him.

Hamilton had the moral high ground. He could play it cool, play down any ill-feeling over the clash while Rosberg faced the consequences. That saved Mercedes one drama at least, for whatever might have gone on behind the scenes since the clash, it at least hasn't had to deal with another public falling out.

Before Hamilton arrived on the scene at Mercedes, Rosberg had also made a mess of trying to show he wasn't a soft touch in battle at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix, when he ran Hamilton's McLaren and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari off the road on the run to Turn 4 in separate incidents. Rosberg escaped sanction after a stewards' investigation for what he considered "good racing", but Alonso in particular was livid.

But what if - despite the poor execution - Rosberg's actions on Sunday achieve the desired outcome in the longer term? Providing the championship leader doesn't go into his shell, will Hamilton think twice the next time they are wheel-to-wheel? Or, sensing weakness in his foe, will Hamilton in fact twist the knife in, daring Rosberg to risk another collision?

We could get the answer as early as this weekend's British Grand Prix. The 'Loop' complex on the opening lap seems as good a time and place as any...

Unfortunately for Rosberg, while he has at least shown that he is prepared to get rough with Hamilton, he's yet to prove he is savvy enough to make the elbows-out approach work.

If he really wants to prove a point to Hamilton, he needs to do it in a repeat of the incidents we mentioned at the beginning - when Rosberg is the one on the outside and Hamilton is doing the bullying.

Only if Rosberg shows that he's prepared to leave his car on a piece of track the world champion believes he has a right to occupy will Rosberg really start to make the man on the other side of the silver garage think twice.

Forgetting to turn the steering wheel in Austria on Sunday did not achieve that.