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Sir Jackie Stewart believes the three-week break between races will aid a "depressed" Nico Rosberg in his Formula 1 title battle with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg, who forced a title decider with Hamilton last season before finishing runner-up, has been beaten by his team-mate in every qualifying session and race so far this year.

While he was able to finish one position behind Hamilton in each of the first three races to minimise the damage in terms of points, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen split the Mercedes in Bahrain.

As a result, the German is 27 points adrift of leader Hamilton in the championship standings, whereas at the same point last year, he was four points clear at the top.

"At the moment, I think he is depressed about the situation as Lewis has been delivering with such consistency," three-time world champion Stewart told AUTOSPORT.

"But that might not last forever. Nico is a top-line driver and he can overcome that.

"We've just had back-to-back weekends and now he has more than a week off from driving and from racing.

"That will give him some time to get his head back in the right place."

Hamilton has dominated qualifying this year, taking all four pole positions while in the races, won three grands prix and finished second in the other.

Stewart believes Hamilton is showing a newfound maturity this season and driving better than ever.

"He isn't peak and valley now at all," said Stewart. "He seems to be in a better place, is very focused and is taking driving very seriously.

"We haven't seen him making too many mistakes and to be honest, I don't think he can drive much better than he's driving at the present time.

"I think he's the fastest grand prix driver on the track right now.

"He's in the groove and will be very difficult to beat if he keeps driving like that."

CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton 93 2 Nico Rosberg 66 3 Sebastian Vettel 65 4 Kimi Raikkonen 42 5 Felipe Massa 31