Hamilton rekindles Rosberg feud with sly sledge

Lewis Hamilton has taken a massive dig at former teammate Nico Rosberg while celebrating his fourth F1 world title.

Rosberg interrupted Hamilton's reign over the sport by claiming the drivers' world championship in 2016, only to sensationally walk away from the sport just days later at the age of 31.

Hamilton took advantage of the German's departure to reclaim the crown at the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, the Briton making it three titles with Mercedes and four overall.

And Hamilton made sure to slip a sly sledge towards Rosberg into his post-race press conference.

"Four is a great number. But I want number five now," the former McLaren driver said.

"I want to go out at the top… I could do the easy thing, like obviously Nico did, which is just stop and retreat with these four titles. But I think there's more in me.

"I think there's more to come, more of a challenge. There's harder times ahead and I like that, I love that. That's challenging and it would be so boring without it."

Rosberg took to his Twitter account to post a video message to Hamilton and Mercedes, hailing their achievements after another successful season.

"Lewis, congrats," said Rosberg. "It's been a really awesome performance this year. Well done, it's really well deserved. A fourth championship; that's really impressive.

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"What a season it's been. The battle of Mercedes, Ferrari, with Red Bull in the mix, and then Lewis and Seb, it's been exciting.

"Big congrats to Mercedes on a really incredible job. With this massive regulation change, having to completely start from scratch, to then dominate again - particularly towards the end of the season - is really impressive.

"I hope you all celebrate in style tonight. I'll be back in the paddock at Abu Dhabi. In the meantime, have fun."

Level with Alain Prost and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on four titles, Hamilton trails only five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio and seven-time winner Michael Schumacher.

Should Mercedes' recent dominance over Ferrari and Red Bull continue, the 32-year-old can harbour realistic ambitions of setting a new record for F1 championship triumphs.

with agencies