German took aim Hamilton, Bottas after both were passed by French GP race winner and championship leader Verstappen
\nRetired Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg criticised former Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for \u2018soft\u2019 defending against Red Bull in the closing stages of Sunday\u2019s French Grand Prix.
\nThe German, at Le Castellet as a pundit for Sky Sports television, took aim after both were passed by race winner and championship leader Max Verstappen.
\n\u201cValtteri did a rubbish job, honestly, in defending because he blocked completely unnecessarily, he braked way too late and went straight on so Max had such an easy time getting past,\u201d Rosberg told viewers.
\n\u201cMaybe he would have got past anyway but at least cost him a bit more lap time. It was not a very good way of defending and could have been done in a much more smart way.\u201d
\nVerstappen had made a second pitstop and had to pass Bottas, then running second, in order to reel in and overtake the Finn\u2019s seven-times world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton for the win.
\nWhen Verstappen caught up with Hamilton and made a move on the penultimate lap, the Briton did not offer much resistance either on tyres worn down to the limit.
\n\u201cClose the damn door, no?,\u201d said 2016 champion Rosberg of Hamilton\u2019s reaction.
\n\u201cUsually Lewis is the best one-to-one racer and I\u2019m surprised he didn\u2019t try. At least try, brake late and try to keep him on the outside. A bit soft there from Lewis, somehow.\u201d
\nRed Bull boss Christian Horner complimented Hamilton, however.
\n\u201cI have to say Lewis was very fair with the pass, he didn\u2019t defend hard or aggressively and it was a very clean move,\u201d he said.
\nHamilton, who was runner-up on a one-stop strategy, explained there was little he could have done.
\n\u201cIf he didn\u2019t pass me there, he would have passed me on the straight afterwards, so it would have made zero difference and I just had no front end, so he would have got me either way,\u201d said the Briton.
\n\u201cIt was pointless to defend any harder. I think you saw what happened to Valtteri — he just ended up going straight on. So, there was no point messing up the tyres any more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German took aim Hamilton, Bottas after both were passed by French GP race winner and championship leader Verstappen Retired Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg criticised former Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for \u2018soft\u2019 defending against Red Bull in the closing stages of Sunday\u2019s French Grand Prix. The German, at Le Castellet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n