Hamilton won't get drawn into psychological warfare as Merc duo prepare for Bahrain duel

Ahead of what could be a defining weekend in the battle for this year’s Drivers’ Championship title, Lewis Hamilton has insisted that he is not interested in the psychological battle between title rivals and insists that he’ll do his “talking on the track”.

Following last weekend’s tense moment in Shanghai, in which Nico Rosberg insisted that Hamilton’s pace during the grand prix had put the German in danger of being caught by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, and which led to Hamilton’s response that Rosberg could have passed him if he was able, the world champion today said that he has once again cleared the air with his team-mate and but batted away questions about how he engages with the inevitable psychological battle that occurs between title rivals in F1.

He said that he is not interested in playing psychological games with Rosberg.

“There’s no issue between me and Nico,” Hamilton said in Bahrain. “We saw each other this morning and everything is good. They’re going to be times when people are unhappy about some things but we’re grown-ups and we move past it.”

Asked how he now approaches the mental battles that have characterised his time at Mercedes with Rosberg, and which defined his debut season at McLaren as team-mate to Fernando Alonso, Hamilton said his strategy has not changed.

“I just do my talking on the track, that’s how it’s always been since I was eight years old,” he said. “And naturally you just try to learn from decisions you take and experiences you have and hope that you get better. All the stuff that comes out of the car… I have no particular interest in it.”

That theory is likely to be severely tested this weekend in Bahrain, scene of a titanic battle between Hamilton and Rosberg last year.

“We had an amazing race here, it was really fantastic, great fun, a huge, huge challenge both for Nico and for me,” Hamilton admitted. “It was honestly the best race, visibly, that I had seen here in Bahrain, so it was great and I’m looking forward to that. I think with these tyres and with Ferrari in the mix, I think we could see a real special race here.”

However, it is possible the major battle of this year’s race could come in qualifying.

Qualifying was Rosberg’s strong suit last year, the area in which he was able to properly dominate Hamilton with six pole positions coming in mid-season, which provided the platform for three wins in a period when Hamilton won just once.

Saturday afternoons have been a demoralising experience for Rosberg this season so far, to the degree that in China, he vented his frustration over team radio after losing pole to Hamilton by four hundredths of a second. He he highlighted qualifying as the key battle ground for the weekend, saying, "I need to be 5/100ts faster than in China…"

The German badly needs the fillip of carving a chink in his team-mate's armour and landing pole position here could provide just the boost Rosberg needs to take the fight to Hamilton once more. And Bahrain might just offer the best chance of that.

While Rosberg has recently thrived in qualifying at the Sakhir Circuit, taking pole in each of the last two years, Hamilton has never been on pole at the Sakhir Circuit, though he has been on the front row three times. It’s a career omission he’s keen to redress.

“Ultimately I want to improve. Last year I didn’t qualify on pole here, I’ve never been on pole here so that’s the challenge but as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the challenge of trying to win the race.”

Hamilton may not be interested in mind games but to some extent events and circumstance have rather overtaken that view. Last weekend’s race saw a tetchy renewal of hostilities between the team-mate and this weekend they find themselves back at the scene of perhaps their greatest contest, a track which historically has favoured Rosberg over the champion. It would hard for either not to see this race as a chance to either stamp authority on the title battle or to strike back in style.