Three years after they parted company, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg still cannot allow the opportunity for a sly dig at the other's expense to pass by.

Admittedly, the Briton has eased off of late, while the German's role as a pundit for a variety of broadcasters basically gives him free reign to continue to take a pop at his former friend and teammate whenever the opportunity arises

In Germany, when it was revealed that Mercedes had considered replacing Hamilton with Esteban Ocon after the Briton felt unwell, Rosberg smiled and said: "Yeh, he does that from time to time".

In a subsequent vlog, Rosberg claimed that Max Verstappen is the best driver on the 2019 grid and that Hamilton had passed his peak.

"The best age for racing drivers is 30, 31, 32," said the German who was 30 when he won the title in 2016 and promptly retired, "that's because your ability, as you're getting older slightly decreases, but experience counts so much in this sport.

"So experience will outdo the small decrease in your natural ability as a human as you get a bit older."

Naturally, a kindly journo relayed the comment to Lewis.

"I've never seen the blog," said Hamilton, according to Motorsport.com, "I don't know who follows it, but it has no bearing on anything that I do.

"I don't care," he continued, "everyone has their own opinion. Whether he's right or wrong, I don't really care. All you have to do is look at my tally of results over the years, and they kind of speak for themselves.

"Naturally there will be people that have not had the success that I've had, and might want to talk it down, but that's OK.

"I read a really good book," he said, "I think it's called the Four Agreements. There's an element in there where it says don't take anything personally, so when someone says something about you, it's not actually about you, it's how they feel about themselves.

"I'm 34 years old but I feel like I'm driving better than ever. Hopefully today you can see that I've not lost any speed. Qualifying is not always going to go great, you just have to move on. Races are not always going to go great, the last one sucked.

"But you know what, you move straight on, let it go, there's nothing you can do about the past, all you can do is try to shape the future.

"Honestly I couldn't be more proud... ultimately you want to be proud of yourself, and I feel really proud of myself today, how I drove, because that's how I always want to drive, and then how we delivered as a team."

Asked if retirement had crossed his mind, he said: "I watch different sports and I see people that I've grown up watching who have stopped and moved onto something else. Obviously I'm in a sport where I am one of the older drivers so I've got a different perspective. Naturally being 22 to being 34 is a much different perspective.

"I don't know why some people decided to stop at the times they decide to stop. But I tell you I love driving, man.

"I've never liked practice," he admitted. "I don't mind practice on a race weekend but testing I've always made clear I don't enjoy that so much. But I really, really love the challenge, arriving each weekend and digging into the data.

"One day I will have to stop. But right now I feel fantastic physically, generally, this year, and mentally, so I currently don't have any plans of stopping any time soon.

"There's more to do, more to win. There's more to achieve together inside and outside of the car, within the sport and outside of the sport."

Guess one might call that "Touche!".

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 09/08/2019 13:36

"Nico is just a mediocre rich-kid driver who lucked-in and beat Lewis in his (Lewis') worst-ever Mercedes season. His opinion is worthless."

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2. Posted by trackrecords, 09/08/2019 7:14

"Explain this away Rosberg: Hamilton clocked a faster race lap on old mediums than Bottas could manage on a fresh set of soft tyres??"

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3. Posted by Barslug, 08/08/2019 22:33

"As I recall Nico, the only reason you were able to beat Hamilton was because he had 2 mechanical DNFs and you had one. One while on track to a win. 5 points was all you could win by. You retired simply because you know you got lucky and could never beat him again. Now you stand there throwing stones. You are a sad, angry little man. Go away Nico. You had your 15 minutes. "

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4. Posted by meatball, 08/08/2019 19:01

"Not a huge fan of Hamilton. Never have been, don't think I ever will be for the same reasons he's as successful as he is - his cockiness, his single mindedness and the facade he puts on. That said, he is, by far, the most mentally strong driver out there today. He's the best at keeping the past - be it something that happened an hour, a day, a month ago - behind him. It's in his language "the past is in the past (usually with a "man" thrown in there)" and he lives by that. The other current top drivers are good at it but not in the same league as HAM. Vettel - if he gets in his own head, he's doomed and that's shown a few times. Max is definitely getting better at it and that's going to be the real fight. Put Max in the same car and it will absolutely come down to who is mentally stronger. I don't think Ham will walk all over Max like he owned Nico. When those 2 were teammates Lewis would make a single statement and totally tank Nico's weekend. Nico was taking a knife to a gun fight. There are a lot of RBR haters but I hope Max gets an equally competitive car and shreds Lewis - on opposing teams, orders will never play a role."

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5. Posted by Redphyve, 08/08/2019 18:23

"Lewis broke Nico, mentally and physically. He had to throw so much into his WDC year, he had to put so much effort into beating Lewis, that he broke.
He did extra conditioning, extra training, he utilised every method he could think of to be better physically and emotionally.

And then he won his WDC, and as he came down off that high, he realised, he couldn't do it again. Maintain that level of performance, that single-minded purpose, to do it all again to beat Lewis.

So he retired. He couldn't do what Hamilton does and make it look effortless. And it burns his butt...so we get all these little pops about Lewis, the snide remarks...because he can't compete at Lewis's level.

That's my 2c."

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6. Posted by Fambank, 08/08/2019 18:11

"I am not a fan of Hamilton, but nor am I a hater of him. But his driving abilities
and racecraft are really are of an extremely high standard and cannot be denied.
Is he the GOAT ? For me he isn't but that mainly that I am a child of the late sixties.
My first idol was Lauda, for his sheer determination to get back to racing. Later idols
include, but not limited to Senna, Mansell, Prost and Gilles Villeneuve.

Rosberg on the other hand...not really my kind of personality. Overacting and imho
not honest in his reactions. And as far as his claim that he beat Hamilton ?
Well that was only once. You only beat him truly when you got more WDC than him.

Ohh but wait, you chickened right out after your first and only one..."

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Hamilton responds to Roberg's jibe

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