LEWIS HAMILTON FACES 'ULTIMATE TEST' AS NICO ROSBERG OFFERS ADVICE TO GEORGE RUSSELL

faces the "ultimate test" in his battle with , believes his old team-mate . After getting the better of Hamilton in their first season together, Russell is right on his team-mate's tail in 2023 and finished fourth in Saudi Arabia with '

There were some suggestions that Russell ignored team orders in Jeddah when Hamilton caught up to the back of him. But the younger Briton did not reject a request to let the seven-time world champion through and eventually finished comfortably ahead in P4.

It means just two points separate the two drivers in the championship standings. Russell ended 35 points ahead of his veteran team-mate last year when Hamilton failed to win a race for the first time in his career while his compatriot won the Brazilian Grand Prix.

And Rosberg, who famously shared four seasons with Hamilton at Mercedes and beat him to the 2016 world title, says the multiple-time champion faces a big challenge to finish above Russell in the standings. The German Sky Sports expert also pointed out a chink in Hamilton's armour that he thinks Russell can exploit.

After watching an interview of a downcast Hamilton speaking to Sky Sports, Rosberg said: "That was just the 'I got beat by my team-mate' face. That's pretty simple."

And he added: "George is the ultimate test, he is a future world champion. It is difficult for Lewis to stay in front. We saw it last year, what an awesome season George did.

"George is continuing on that form once again. It's going to be a big, big challenge, but let's not forget Lewis is the best of all time so if there's going to be someone who can beat George then it will be Lewis."

Asked about Hamilton's current mood, with the 38-year-old noticeably more downbeat than his team-mate, Rosberg insisted that Russell must take advantage while his team-mate is at a low point. The F1 pundit added: "No, absolutely. It's a little bit of a weakness that Lewis has that sometimes.

"He'll mentally go into this down a little bit and lose a little bit of flow. But he comes back with a bang every single time so dear George don't get too comfortable." Russell meanwhile took encouragement away from the weekend despite finishing 25 seconds behind race-winner Sergio Perez even after a safety car.

"Give credit to what Red Bull have done," he said. "The gap to the rest of the field is the biggest since Mercedes in 2014. It's a serious gap, everyone needs to work harder to understand how to close that gap.

"We know we didn't make the right decisions over the winter. We have gained more performance than you would ordinarily so everything is not lost. We will still be fighting hard, we want to win races this year, we want to be in the championship hunt.

"But we have to be realistic, focus on ourselves, and get the fundamentals right for the future. We have the take the positives away from this weekend. We qualified ahead of the Ferraris and Astons. The car is capable of that, at the moment." F1 returns with the Australian Grand Prix on April 2.

2023-03-21T05:09:40Z dg43tfdfdgfd