Does Rosberg hold psychological edge?

It was only a few races ago that the pundits believed that Lewis Hamilton had broken Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg mentally.

After taking the season opener in Australia with Hamilton suffering a retirement due to an engine failure, Rosberg rushed into a 25-point lead in the Formula One World Championship.

But the German could only watch on as Hamilton took four consecutive victories to claw back the deficit.

Then came Monaco and the rift between the two drivers due to the incident in qualifying. Rosberg took the victory restoring his lead in the championship, before a second place finish in Canada following Hamilton’s second retirement of the season has given Rosberg a 22-point lead going into the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.

‘It was really important to bring that run to an end because psychology is a big part of sports,’ said Rosberg to the BBC.

‘If you have those results behind you, like I do now, it gives you that little bit extra, that little bit of an edge, so it does help,’

But whilst the focus has been on the inter-team battle between championship leader Rosberg and team-mate Hamilton, Mercedes struggled for reliability in Canada.

Both cars suffered mechanical issues with loss of power, whilst Hamilton retired due to a brake failure.

Is that now a concern for the runaway title contenders?

‘With reliability problems like that, it’s not good, We need to be bulletproof.

‘It’s a work in progress. We’ve been good with reliability, but we have had a few problems now, so we have to keep on going and make sure it’s 100%.’