Pit Stop | Battle lines drawn early this season in Formula One

I don't know about you, but I don't think I've ever heard the guy who's running second in a grand prix ask the leader to go a bit faster, but that's the odd thing that happened last weekend in Shanghai.

Three races into the season and the Mercedes feud between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has flared up again. Apparently all will be sweetness and light as they roll into Bahrain for this weekend's duel in the desert. According to the team the air was cleared, the slate was wiped clean after a meeting following the shenanigans in Shanghai.

I wouldn't be so sure. What so upset Rosberg was the fact that his British teammate was running slow enough to push him back towards the chasing Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen. It's the sort of trick that Vettel used to pull on Mark Webber in their Red Bull days.

Of course, come the couple of laps before a pit stop, Hamilton miraculously found extra speed - in one case almost a second a lap to stretch his advantage. It was astonishing that Rosberg had to radio his team to tell Hamilton to go faster. It was equally amusing to hear Hamilton's engineer tell him if he didn't maintain a faster lap time, Rosberg would be pitted first - a threat to punish him and give the German the advantage.

What is interesting as we head to another grand prix within seven days is the dynamic, and the mental grip that Hamilton seems to have. He was able to control the race, his teammate and it would seem his pit wall crew at will. He was out to call the shots no matter what telling off he was getting.

That seems a million miles away from the major mental wobble he had after last year's Monaco escapade in qualifying where Rosberg blocked his best run. It took a while for him to get his equilibrium back, and his lead in the championship. He looks like he wants to take an iron grip on his team this year, boosted by his world champion status.