To Jinx Max Verstappen’s Race, Mercedes Driver Tests the Nico Rosberg Curse

Nico Rosberg has been in focus recently because his infamous jinx seemingly affected Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s race in Hungary last week. Following in his footsteps, Mercedes Esports driver Jarno Opmeer decided to check whether the magical powers are exclusive to Rosberg, by trying things out himself in Belgium.

The ‘Nico Rosberg Curse’ is said to fall on a driver/team, when the ex-Mercedes driver shows his support for them on social media. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were both affected by the so-called curse during the Hungarian GP weekend, after Verstappen lost the pole position, and Hamilton dropped down to P4 in the race despite starting from P1.

Ahead of the qualifying session, Rosberg posted a picture of himself in front of Verstappen’s garage, and suddenly, after six races in a row, the Dutchman lost out on the pole position to Hamilton. On the following day, Rosberg did the same with Hamilton and the seven-time world champion fell back from P1 to finish the race outside the podium in P4.

Heading into the Belgian GP, McLaren did not want to take any chances and hilariously put up a poster banning Rosberg from taking any selfies in front of their garage. However, Jarno Opmeer decided to take matters into his own hands at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit ahead of the race on Sunday.

Jarno Opmeer’s own version of the ‘Nico Rosberg Curse’

Ahead of the main race on Sunday, Jarno Opmeer made his way out to the paddock and took a selfie in front of Verstappen’s garage, trying to emulate Nico Rosberg. He captioned the image, “I’m testing something here.”

Fans reacted hilariously to Opmeer’s attempt to end his compatriot’s winning streak by trying to put the ‘Nico Rosberg Curse’ on him. Athena commented that Mercedes should give Opmeer a raise if it works out.

Georgia, on the other hand, pointed out that his curse did not really work out and it backfired instead.

Verstappen ended up winning the Belgian GP and extended his winning streak to eight races in a row. Clearly, Opmeer failed to emulate Rosberg as Verstappen did not have any issues making his way to P1 from P6, and finish more than 20 seconds ahead of second-placed Sergio Perez.

No curse can stop Max Verstappen

Despite all the curses and on-track efforts, Verstappen has been unstoppable this season. He is one race win away from matching Sebastian Vettel’s record of having the most consecutive race wins (9).

The Red Bull driver was beyond excellent during the Belgian GP. He was flying from the very get go, and was in P2 in just a few laps. Verstappen’s pace was too much for Perez to handle, and the Mexican driver gave up on fighting his teammate once again.

Verstappen easily breezed past Perez on the Raidillion. After that, even though there were some concerns about tire management, Verstappen cruised home to take the win. He heads into the summer-break, at the top of the standings with 314 points to his name.