General

Rosberg identifies Verstappen as being off his game today

27 May 2022 at 17:14
Last update 27 May 2022 at 17:32

In a post-practice wrap up with Sky Sports it was Nico Rosberg who was to comment on the defending world champion, Max Verstappen's less than stellar Friday. The 2016 World Champion claims that he could see that "he just hasn't felt comfortable yet, which is very unusual, so let's see if he can find that rhythm in FP3."

Checo's improvement in 2022

The German went on to commiserate the work of Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen's teammate, as the Mexican has closed down the gap between the dutchman. The 36-year-old said, "Sergio generally this year has been much closer, he's been like two tenths away instead of like five-tenths.". The former champion believes that this could be down to Perez feeling "more comfortable in the car this year"

However Rosberg still thinks that Perez beating Verstappen is FP2, is more down to a lack of pace from Verstappen rather than Perez closing that gap even more. "It's really Max, who's been out of place today, almost half a second away from the Ferraris"

It's all about the rhythm

Rosberg's buzzword for the conversation was the word rhythm stressing how important it is to find your own pace around Monaco more than any other weekend. Speaking further on Max, Rosberg claimed "it's all about rhythm this weekend, for him to get back into that rhythm tomorrow, it is big time"