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Focus on ... Rosberg v HamiltonWe were told the lessons of 2014 had been learned. The relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg was supposed to be mellowing, it was supposed to be getting easier to manage. Sure, the collision at this years Spanish Grand Prix was a disaster from a sporting perspective -- a one-two finish thrown away -- but the maturity shown in the aftermath represented progress, did it not? Despite the high-speed collision, there was barely a misplaced word to the media and a remarkable gesture of goodwill followed at the next round in Monaco as Rosberg moved over to let Hamilton pass.So what on earth happened in Austria?On the final lap of a rollercoaster race weekend for both drivers the illusion slipped and revealed the raw egoistic ambition of two top level racing drivers fighting for the ultimate prize in their sport. That ambition had never gone away but recently both drivers, especially Rosberg, had done a better job at concealing it. In Austria it was laid bare for all to see, and with it the problem Mercedes faces in managing its drivers.Team orders are on the table, but theres the potential for them to do more harm than good to the Mercedes brand. On the one hand the team has a duty to the sport to let its drivers fight for the title, but on the other it is fed up of its two best-paid employees undoing the hard work of 1,500 others. Team orders can come in many forms and it is unlikely we will see the drivers being told to hold position after the final pit stop, or worse, after the first corner. More likely is a return to identical strategies for both cars, making it harder for one to attack the other in normal conditions.In the immediate future, Thursdays press conferences will be fascinating. The stewards and most pundits blamed Rosberg? for the collision, but he is unlikely to roll over and accept that. Following the stewards decision on Sunday he logged on to Facebook Live and repeated -- almost word for word -- his version of events, in which he claimed he was simply using the full width of the track to defend his position.Either driver admitting they made a mistake would undoubtedly ease relations at Mercedes, but its hard to imagine that happening. Instead, Mercedes must balance the two egos of its drivers in public this weekend, while making sure any ill feeling does not trickle down to the rest of the team. Its an unenviable task, but one that will be fascinating to watch from afar.In need of a podiumOne of the biggest surprises of the Austrian Grand Prix was how Max Verstappen managed to outperform Daniel Ricciardo in the race. Once he was ahead of his more experienced teammate, he pulled away from him and was rewarded with the second podium finish of his five-race Red Bull career. By comparison Ricciardo has had an unhealthy dose of bad luck and scored just one podium. As an overall package, few would disagree that the more experienced Ricciardo is the better all-rounder, but he still needs to prove it with results.In need of pointsRomain Grosjeans return to the points in Austria was proof that Haas is slowly recovering its early-season form. The competitiveness of the car at any given track is still delicate, but the Frenchmans seventh place proved that in the right circumstances with the right tyres points are still very possible. As a result, Esteban Gutierrez must step up and take his first points of the season as soon as possible. On three occasions he has finished one place outside the points-paying positions, but to secure his future at the team he needs to move off zero.WeatherUnsurprisingly, rain is expected over the Silverstone weekend, but the question is when and where it will fall. Light rain is expected on Friday morning and again on Sunday morning, but anybody who has visited Silverstone will know how fickle a forecast can be. Saturday is likely to be the hottest day, with temperatures reaching 23C, but it is expected to dip back under 20C for Sundays race.BettingLewis Hamilton has odds of 1/1 to win his home race while Nico Rosberg is 2/1, making the latter the obvious choice for a bet on Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel is 13/2 in the Ferrari while teammate Kimi Raikkonen is 25/1. A Red Bull victory carries odds of 14/1 for both drivers, but perhaps a more tempting is Felipe Massa at 10/1 for a podium in the Williams.A lap with ... Romain GrosjeanYou start off on the new main pit straight before taking the first turn flat out. Then you come into two hairpins. The first one is more open than the second one, and the second you really want to go for as early as you can. Then you go through the old last couple of corners -very tricky braking here - before going along the old pit straight. Its very tricky here on power, as well.Then you get to the very high-speed section. Its a great sensation in the car here. You stay flat out as much as you can into Maggotts and Becketts, and then downshifting every corner a gear, and then youre onto the Hanger Straight to Stowe corner. This is another tricky one where you enter very quickly. You want to go on the power as quick as you can, but the corner is closing down more than you think. Then you go to the last chicane - heavy braking and its very bumpy. Then youve got your final throttle application with a lot of g-force on the right-hand side and you cross the finish line.TyresAvailable compounds: Hard, Medium, SoftWith the majority of teams choosing mostly the softest compound available - a consistent trend we have seen all year - its clear that the intention of many drivers is to run quite an aggressive strategy, which on a track like Silverstone could result in multiple pit stops. As last year showed, the weather is also a typically British variable, which means that we are likely to be in for an unpredictable race. 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ZHUKOVSKY, Russia -- Russias top athletes reacted with anger after the news broke Thursday that their track and field team would remain banned from next months Rio de Janeiro Olympics.Two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, the teams biggest star, wrote on Instagram that without Russia, historically a track superpower, only pseudo-gold medals would be on offer at a devalued Rio Olympics.The Court of Arbitration for Sports decision -- to reject an appeal against an earlier ban -- marked the funeral for track and field, Isinbayeva told state news agency Tass.At a competition near Moscow that had been scheduled as a final tune-up before the games, most athletes saw the ruling as fundamentally unjust, and based on unfair allegations of mass doping and government cover-ups.Its a big blow for me personally and for the athletes, said world high jump champion Maria Kuchina, who would have been a strong contender for gold at her first Olympics.Three hours after news came through that Russias appeal against the ban by the International Association of Athletics Federations had been rejected, Kuchina leapt 2 meters in front of the sparse crowd. The jump would have been good enough to have won the gold medal at the European championships earlier this month -- if she and the rest of the Russian team had not been suspended.Despite all the difficulties and problems, we kept training, she said. Today I showed that Id be in contention for the Olympic podium, regardless of the news today.A string of reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency and an IAAF taskforce that focused on widespread doping in Russian track and field, along with alleged cover-ups involving high-ranking government officials, have done little to convince Russian athletes that their team deserves punishment.A lot of the facts arent confirmed, its complete slander and theyre still putting pressure on us, said Vera Rudakova, one of the worlds top young hurdlers.Bans for individual dopers are fair, but not the exclusion of a whole team, hurdler Timofey Chaly argued.Its dishonest, he said. There are people who decided for themselves that they can dope and maybe somehow theyd get away with it. That didnt happen and they got bans, thats fair.Russias ban contained a bitter irony for former European javelin champion Vera Rebrik, who switched allegiance from Ukraine to Russia in 20114 after her home region of Crimea was annexed by Russia.dddddddddddd. She will now miss the Olympics because of her new nations ban.I dont know whether to laugh or cry, she told state TV.A minority of Russian athletes think the cloud has a silver lining.A ban from Rio could be the incentive needed for Russia to take action, according to hammer thrower Sergei Litvinov, a strident anti-doping voice on the Russian team.He told The Associated Press that Russian athletics officials failed to act on doping in time and hopes that this situation can encourage the management to push through reforms. Litvinov says the next step for international authorities should be to investigate what he believes are Russian-style organized doping schemes in other countries.I want all (doping) systems to be shut down. Not just ours, but all of them, Litvinov said.As it stands, Russias once-vaunted track team could be reduced to just a single athlete at the Rio Olympics.Long jumper Darya Klishina was exempted from the ban by the IAAF because she lives and trains in Florida at an academy run by sports marketing company IMG and has been tested for years by the U.S. anti-doping agency, not Russias scandal-hit equivalent.However, some Russian fans have turned on her since she received permission to compete, calling her a traitor and demanding she refuse her Olympic spot in solidarity with banned teammates.But those same teammates want Klishina to succeed.Kuchina said Thursday she will obviously support Klishina.I dont think shes a traitor, Rudakova said. The IAAF gave us its criteria and Dasha was lucky that it worked out for her...Well cheer her on, she added, using Klishinas nickname.The IAAF has also allowed Russian doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova to race, but the 800-meter runner is struggling with injury and has not set a competitive time this year.Regardless of their views on Russias doping scandal, almost all of its athletes must now rebuild their careers and hope to return to international competition next season.Outspoken in his criticism of dopers, Litvinov even asked the IAAF to give him more doping tests.Now in the same boat as his less strident teammates, he says all thats left is to try not to lose motivation for next year. ' ' '