2016 world champion Nico Rosberg has revealed his surprise that Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have not come together yet during their championship battle.
The pair treated fans to some exceptional wheel-to-wheel racing during the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and, while the racing was hard, it was also fair between the two.
They engaged in further battles in Imola and Miami, and have taken victory in nine of the opening 11 races between them.
38 points separate them in the Drivers’ Standings, and barely anything has divided them on track in 2022, but there have been no accidents between them yet.
READ: Charles Leclerc thanks Carlos Sainz as he prepares to keep Max Verstappen at bay
Rosberg, who was involved in a number of ferocious battles with Sir Lewis Hamilton between 2014 and 2016, would have expected some bad blood by now.
“Honestly, that surprises me massively, because they have gone wheel-to-wheel so much and so intensely,” he told Sky Sports.
“That there’s never even been kind of a discussion moment or anything has been a huge surprise.”
While contact has not happened yet, the German is convinced that it will eventually as the title battle inches closer to its crescendo.
“I would bet probably even my house on it!” quipped Rosberg.
“It’s not going to last for the whole season.
“With the amount of times they go wheel-to-wheel, there must come a moment where there’s going to be some wheel banging or different opinions on some kind of incident or something, let’s see.
“As a fan, of course we want to see things heating up a little bit more, but I’m sure we’ll get that soon.”
Leclerc beat Verstappen to pole by just over three tenths of a second at the French Grand Prix this weekend, with Sergio Perez behind in third.
The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz will start P19 after the Spaniard took an engine penalty following his reliability failure at the Austrian Grand Prix last time out.