Nico Rosberg's 'excuse' jibe at Lewis Hamilton: "George is like last time I checked the cars are pretty similar"

Former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg took a jibe at his former teammate Lewis Hamilton after he failed to get out of Q1 at the 2024 F1 Chinese GP on Saturday.

It was a day of contrasting fortunes for the seven-time world champion as he finished P2 in the Sprint race behind the eventual winner Max Verstappen. However, in the qualifying session, he qualified P18 after locking up his tires on his final push lap.

On the Sky Sports live broadcast, Nico Rosberg said that it would be difficult to give an excuse for Lewis Hamilton after his performance. He also spoke about Hamilton's complaints earlier this season of having a different car from his teammate George Russell.

Rosberg 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.”

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Lewis Hamilton analyzes his Chinese GP qualifying session after finishing P18

Lewis Hamilton has said that it should have been "easy" for him to get out of the Q1 session on Saturday after the pace he showed in the sprint race.

Speaking with F1.com, the Mercedes driver said:

“I woulda, shoulda got through easy. It was my mistake. I just struggled I think to stop the car in Turn 14, it just kept locking. Maybe I needed one more lap.”

“The car’s massively different – we changed a lot but I’m hoping tomorrow’s going to be a bit better. I hope it rains tomorrow now. The rain dance – I need everyone to do it!”

Meanwhile, his teammate George Russell was more optimistic about the main race as he believed that "he got a good reading [on the car] in the Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint Race."

He also said that his side of the garage "wanted to make some changes."

"Time will tell tomorrow if it’s an improvement or not… I think the Ferraris are a little bit ahead of us. I think the fight is with McLaren and Fernando [Alonso],” he added.

It would be interesting to see where Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finish at the end of the main race as this weekend has turned into damage limitation after a promising Sprint race.