Nico Rosberg is ready to party after maintaining his 100 per cent start to the Formula One season by winning the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Advertisement
Rosberg took his third victory in a row to continue his 100% start to the season, leaving him 36 points clear of Hamilton in the drivers’ championship.
With a race win in hand, Rosberg insists he isn’t losing focus on the task ahead as F1 embarks on its longest ever season.
The Mercedes star made it three wins from as many races in 2016 by taking maximum points in China on Sunday.
“As I said I got a good start, great overtaking – I can still overtake, so there are lots of positives to take from today and ultimately I wasn’t able to show my true ability or all of my ability in terms of pure pace because I had a damaged auto but that was the same with the last race as well”. “Lewis is not many points behind – 30 points is not much, it’s a race and a bit”.
Asked if his race had been a roller-coaster, Hamilton replied: “Yeah definitely, definitely, it obviously was”.
Daniil Kvyat still took third in the sister Red Bull and Ricciardo is sure the team is now back in regular podium contention. “But I have the utmost confidence in this team. I think he could have finished second”. Vettel finally reached second position by Lap 37 of the 56-lap race. Lucky that the auto was still intact, ” Vettel said. It was good fun – a lot of cars.
The German dominated the race throughout, leading second-place finisher Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by 33 seconds on the 51st lap.
The first corner saw contact between Vettel and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, which caused the former to drop down the order.
His front wing became detached in the incident, and damaged the underneath of his auto.
“(Vettel) didn’t try to do that on objective”, Raikkonen said. I looked in the mirror and the tyre went. I paid a price for it – it was a disaster after that.
Ricciardo also starred en route to finishing fourth following his early tyre blow-out, with Raikkonen and Massa crossing the line in fifth and sixth. Behind him was Toro Rosso drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in eight and ninth, respectively.
Advertisement
It was a second victory at the Shanghai International Circuit, four years after sealing his first Formula 1 win at the same venue for the Mercedes AMG Petronas driver.
