{"id":22494,"date":"2014-07-07T06:54:19","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T10:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=22494"},"modified":"2014-07-07T06:54:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T10:54:19","slug":"mercedes-duo-tussle-over-title-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/mercedes-duo-tussle-over-title-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes duo tussle over title &#8216;momentum&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis Hamilton insists he is right back on track for the 2014 title.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since his &#8216;tantrum&#8217; in Monaco, the Briton&#8217;s earlier momentum swung wildly in Mercedes teamate Nico Rosberg&#8217;s favour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I still feel that the momentum is with me,&#8221; Rosberg argued at Silverstone on Sunday, although thousands of Britons were still cheering as their hero Hamilton closed the deficit from 29 to just 4 points.<\/p>\n<p>But the German had not been actually defeated by Hamilton, as he broke down from the lead with a gearbox problem.<\/p>\n<p>Rosberg said he won&#8217;t let it get him down.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was totally in command of the race so obviously it&#8217;s disappointing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I only use energy on things that I can influence,&#8221; he is quoted by Germany&#8217;s Auto Motor und Sport.\u00a0 &#8220;This is in the past now.\u00a0 I have to try and accept it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now we move on,&#8221; said Rosberg.\u00a0 &#8220;It&#8217;s very close between the two of us now, so at least that&#8217;s good for those who follow formula one and for television,&#8221; he is quoted by Spain&#8217;s Marca.<\/p>\n<p>What is clear is that the 2014 title battle &#8211; dubbed &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; by the excitable German media &#8211; is now stepping up a gear, as Hamilton&#8217;s run of poor form apparently ends.<\/p>\n<p>A newly-feisty Hamilton thinks he could have beaten Rosberg even without the German&#8217;s failure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I really felt that I had the pace on Nico,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 &#8220;I really was hunting him down like never before.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be honest, I don&#8217;t really feel anything for his retirement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What he does feel is that his era of funk is now behind him.\u00a0 &#8220;I really feel like I can refocus for the rest of the season,&#8221; said Hamilton.<\/p>\n<p>Even Rosberg&#8217;s looming German grand prix, he insists, will not stand in his way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know whilst it (Hockenheim) is Nico&#8217;s home grand prix, he doesn&#8217;t have even one eighth of the support us Brits get here,&#8221; said Hamilton at Silverstone.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing left for the Briton to do on Sunday was to celebrate.\u00a0 He started with a victory doughnut &#8211; legalised for race winners in 2014 &#8211; for the Silverstone crowd.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fingers crossed it didn&#8217;t do anything to the gearbox,&#8221; he smiled.<\/p>\n<p>And then there was the trophy.\u00a0 Hamilton initially expressed disappointment with the flimsy, Santander-themed one presented to him on the podium, which promptly broke.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s the gold trophy, man?&#8221; he wondered.\u00a0 &#8220;(This is) plastic, it must cost ten pounds!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the traditional RAC trophy was being closely watched by security guards, but it was later released to Hamilton&#8217;s short-term custody for photo opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This one&#8217;s a lot nicer.\u00a0 Real trophies, you know?&#8221; Hamilton beamed.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis Hamilton insists he is right back on track for the 2014 title. Ever since his &#8216;tantrum&#8217; in Monaco, the Briton&#8217;s earlier momentum swung wildly in Mercedes teamate Nico Rosberg&#8217;s favour. &#8220;I still feel that the momentum is with me,&#8221; Rosberg argued at Silverstone on Sunday, although thousands of Britons were still cheering as their &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[1741,5262,5340,154,4],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22495,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22494\/revisions\/22495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}