“I felt pain, incredible pain”– Nico Rosberg felt incredible heartbreak when Lewis Hamilton lost dramatically in Abu Dhabi

Nico Rosberg felt incredible pain after his former teammate and arch-rival Lewis Hamilton lost to Max Verstappen for the 2021 title.

Max Verstappen won the F1 championship, which can be conveniently tagged as controversial. The calls made by the FIA F1 race director Michael Masi were questioned.

Ultimately, the folding of the events helped Verstappen to win the championship, even though Lewis Hamilton had the win in his grabs until the safety car.

Reacting to it, Nico Rosberg feels incredible pain for Mercedes being snubbed from the drivers’ championship. Though, the Silver Arrows won the constructors’ title.

“I felt pain, incredible pain,” said Rosberg to the Cross Country Rally YouTube channel. “I don’t have anything to do with Mercedes now but, of course, it’s my family from before and incredible pain.”

“They were 99 per cent sure they were going to win the world championship until there were three laps to go. After losing it, and losing it in a fight like that, where they couldn’t do anything because the tyres had 50 laps on them – unbelievable pain.”

“It’s a shame it ended up like that with a bit of a strange decision by the FIA.”

Also read: Red Bull boss believes that there was nothing wrong with Lewis Hamilton’s car in the 2021 championship

Nico Rosberg enthralled by 2021 season

The 2021 season had an intense battle between the two title protagonists, with both drivers tied ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi. The battles between the two drivers totally gripped Rosberg this year.

🚨| NEW: Lewis Hamilton’s lap one overtake on Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix has been voted overtake of the year.

[@f1]

— formula racers (@formuIaracers_) December 23, 2021

“From the very first moment, we had an amazing year of Formula 1,” Rosberg added. “It was great fun to watch on TV – the fight between Hamilton and Verstappen was phenomenal. They are the two best drivers in many years.”

“Verstappen will be champion many times – the two of them meeting in every race was phenomenal. Of course, Formula 1 is in a difficult situation because they fight and do everything on the limit and the FIA also now has to calibrate and adjust.”

“They have to do a good job in the winter to improve and make everything more square because we have to avoid situations with doubts.”

Also read: Looking back on Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s incredible podium statistics in the 2021 F1 season

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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