Nico Rosberg tips Hamilton to end 2018 slump

Nico Rosberg thinks his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will bounce back from his current performance slump. Although the reigning world champion, Hamilton looked out of form all weekend in China.

"It's a typical Lewis phase," said Rosberg, who was paired with Hamilton at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016. "When things do not work out perfectly, he starts to lose his head and motivation a little and struggles for a while," the retired German told Globo.

"You could see from his interviews that he was really suffering and didn't really understand what was happening. Usually it's one, two or three races, and those are races where you, as his opponent in the championship, need to capitalise. Sebastian (Vettel) couldn't do that in China and that was a big setback for him because Lewis always comes back so strongly," Rosberg added.