"Nico Rosberg is cooking a cold dish of FACTS!": Fans react to Lewis Hamilton's former teammate calling out his excuses for another poor performance

F1 fans were left reeling after Nico Rosberg called out his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for his 'excuses' after his Q1 exit in the Chinese GP qualifying session.

It was a rollercoaster Saturday for the seven-time world champion as he finished P2 in the Sprint race behind Max Verstappen after leading for the first time in quite some time.

However, the Mercedes driver found himself out of the Q1 session after he could not improve on his final fast lap in the qualifying session and finished P18, whilst his teammate George Russell went into the Q3.

On the Sky Sports live broadcast, former world champion Nico Rosberg mentioned that Lewis Hamilton's excuse of his different car setup to his teammate won't work. He said:

“George has mostly been in front of Lewis. 4-1 now, in qualifying. Lewis tends to say ‘Yeah but we have different set-ups and such a big car difference’. That is his excuse, so far this year.

“Each time he says that George says: ‘The last time I checked, the cars are pretty similar…’ He has gone again, for that. So it’s interesting.”

F1 fans on X (formerly Twitter) reacted to Nico Rosberg's dig at the British driver, saying:

"Nico is cooking a cold dish of FACTS!" said a fan.

"I speak for all F1 fans, We Stand with NICO!!" wrote another fan.

"Lewis only guy that blames the team and car for a bad car while he's the issue....so far for a team player and honest guy....." mulled another fan.

Here are some more reactions:

Nico Rosberg chimes in on Lewis Hamilton's 'painful' mistake in the Chinese GP qualifying

Nico Rosberg stated that Lewis Hamilton could have avoided the mistake in the Q1 session that saw him finish P18 in the Chinese GP qualifying.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the former Mercedes driver said:

“That is painful. That is seriously painful. 18th position, Lewis. You know that the wind is coming from the back. He’d had a great lap until then."

"It was really unnecessary to push the limit so much. For a seven-time world champion, that’s a mistake that should be avoidable."

It would be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton responds to his former teammate's claims about his 'painful mistake' and if can he bounce back in the main race starting from P18 on Sunday to replicate his performance from the Sprint race.