Nico Rosberg’s leg once started ‘vibrating’ in fear when he tried to overtake Max Verstappen

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Nico Rosberg’s final season in Formula 1 was Max Verstappen’s first at Red Bull. Verstappen and his fellow front-runners were largely left to pick up the scraps when the dominant Mercedes team faltered.

For instance, Verstappen won on his Red Bull debut in Barcelona when Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton took one another out on the opening lap. He finished second after they collided again in Austria and matched that result when Hamilton’s engine failed at Sepang.

Direct battles between Verstappen and Rosberg were rare, much to the German’s relief. Back then, he says there was a ‘50%’ chance of crashing when trying to overtake the ultra-aggressive teenager.

But at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg was told that he had to pass Verstappen if he wanted to win the world championship.

‘I’d never experienced that in my life’ – Nico Rosberg on battling Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi

Rosberg entered the race at Yas Marina 12 points clear of Hamilton, which meant he only needed a podium to win the title.

But when Verstappen stayed out longer, he threatened to hold Rosberg up and cost him crucial time. After receiving the dreaded hurry up from engineer Tony Ross, he went for a ‘lunge’ into the chicane at the end of the first DRS zone.

Rosberg feared that he would face some aggressive defending, but Verstappen left him space. It was only after making the move that he was gripped by panic.

In a sensation he’d never experienced before, his right leg started vibrating on the exit of the corner. Fortunately, he was able to floor the throttle and gather himself before the tight and technical third sector.

“By slowing me down halfway through the race, I dropped back behind Verstappen, who hadn’t stopped yet,” Rosberg told Sky Sports in December.

“My engineer came onto the radio and said, after I’m stuck there for many laps, ‘Nico, you’re going to have to pass him now otherwise you might lose the championship.’

“That’s not something you want to hear, ever in your life. I went for that lunge, wheel on wheel with Max Verstappen. At the time, he was a much more high-risk driver. It was 50/50 that you crash fighting with him in those days.

“It was clean, he left the space. My foot, after that pass on Max, was jumping on the throttle from fear so much, that I couldn’t control the throttle anymore. I’d never experienced that in my life that the whole leg just vibrates.

“You need to be precise with the throttle pedal! I was lucky that there was a straight line after that and I could just plough my whole leg down into the throttle, so I didn’t have to use my ankle, because that was out of control. That gave me those 10 seconds to regain a little bit of control.”

Nico Rosberg’s retirement saved Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes career

Rosberg held onto P2, which was enough to win the world championship by five points.

Sebastian Vettel accused Hamilton of ‘dirty tricks’ because he had backed up the pack, bringing Mercedes’ rivals into play.

Reflecting on the incident nearly 10 years later, Rosberg said Hamilton was an ‘assassin’ who was trying to ‘maximise the grey areas’. While technically within the rules, the underhand tactic damaged the Briton’s relationship with his team as he openly defied instructions.

There was a very real risk that it would not continue, but Hamilton and Toto Wolff cleared the air in post-season talks. Wolff may have been aided by Rosberg’s abrupt retirement, which ended a period of extreme tension at Brackley.