Rosberg named Verstappen his Driver of the Year after the Dutchman had controversially preferred Hamilton in the World Drivers Championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last month. The two were tied on points before the last Grand Prix of the season, but Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the last lap of the race after a safety car period and clinched his first ever drivers’ title. In a speech on his YouTube channel, Rosberg praised the Red Bull driver for denying Hamilton an eighth record driver title.
He said: “[Verstappen was] simply phenomenal.
“The level in qualifying most of the time, the consistency over the whole year, the level he achieved in the Mercedes and in this dominant form against Lewis, who is probably the greatest of all time. It was just off the charts.
“Also the level in the bike-to-bike race. Lewis is the best in wheel-to-wheel racing, but Verstappen, it has to be said that he was even better.
“This is just crazy. The level even in the pressurized moments. Verstappen almost gets better when the pressure is high. I got about three tenths slower when the pressure was high, it gets about two tenths faster, it’s crazy.
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“I don’t know how he does it. Verstappen number one.
“If you include the bad luck, he probably had a little more bad luck.”
Rosberg was the last driver to beat Hamilton in the 2016 drivers’ world championship, after which the German resigned immediately.
Although Rosberg has praised Hamilton since his retirement and often referred to the British as the greatest of all time, the two endured a fierce rivalry as Mercedes teammates between 2013 and 2016.
After Mercedes delivered a completely dominant car in 2014, the Drivers’ Championship turned into a two-horse race and the childhood friendship between Hamilton and Rosberg turned into a fierce rivalry.
However, Rosberg stated in a post-retirement interview that he was eager to improve his relationship with Hamilton.
In an interview with Graham Bensinger, Rosberg said: “It was important to me to tell him [he was to retire] Personally because of the struggle we fought and everything.
“First I just wrote him a message before the actual announcement and then we got together and talked about it and went through a few things.
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“It was a nice conversation and I am open to find our way and to have a good relationship again in the future. Why not?”
Recalling their friendship, Rosberg continued, “It’s a very unique story.
“When we were 14 years old, we both drove Mercedes Benz-McLaren for the same go-kart team and were best friends.
“We were on vacation in Greece, sat at dinner and said, ‘Just imagine, in 15 years we will be part of the best Formula 1 team together and compete against each other for the championship.
“And then, 15 years later, it happens and it’s pretty crazy.”
The first sign of a bitter feud between Hamilton and Rosberg was when the Brit accused his teammate of deliberately crashing into him at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix “to prove a point”.
When Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton, the two cars touched each other, resulting in the latter driver suffering a puncture and giving up the race.
Two years later they also collided in Austria, Hamilton controversially secured first place, while in Spain the drivers took each other out of the race.
While he was Rosberg’s teammate, Hamilton won two drivers’ world championships, while Rosberg won the title in 2016.
Together, however, they completely dominated and together won 54 of 78 races in four seasons.
