Talk about playing to the crowd.
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Referring to the championship, in which there are seven races remaining, Rosberg said: “The race is on”.
“I’m told it wasn’t driver error”, he told reporters in the wake of an event that saw his teammate take an “easy” win and thereby close the title race to just two points.
The British driver’s bad start was very surprising considering the brilliant display all through the practice sessions which saw him claim pole and led to Rosberg admitting there wasn’t nothing he could have done to beat his rival on Friday and Saturday.
Hamilton had taken pole position after an impressive run in Saturday’s qualifying but his Mercedes stuttered at the line on Sunday.
“It was lost at the start”, Hamilton said.
“We have made improvements, so you’ve seen better starts, but we are still caught out by the random variation that we have from one start to another. So it was all there”.
Rosberg’s win also means that now he is only 2 points away from Hamilton’s lead in the championship.
“I’m feeling great, the race is on with Lewis”. “It’s always going to be a great battle and I look forward to what’s to come”.
Hamilton dropped down to fifth from pole position but easily made his way through into second place during the pitstops thanks to a tyre advantage. It’s hard to overtake here. Fortunately, we’ve got it back for the next three years.
“We have a relatively inconsistent clutch”, he insisted.
“In this team I will never blame anybody – not the driver, not the engineer, nobody”, he said. ‘We had been smashing the weekend and then less than a tenth of a second decides the race.
Sebastian Vettel gave the Tifosi something to cheer about by finishing third, 20.9s adrift, with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.
Rosberg celebrated his victory. Then he jumped into a group of his team members who hoisted him into the air. They are doing a very good job, so you have to say “well done” and show them the respect for what the achieved in the last couple of years, but we’re fighting. It is also the German driver’s 21st career win. Max Verstappen managed to finish seventh, while Force India’s Sergio Perez finished eighth, ahead of his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in 10th. “So I just don’t think about it and enjoy winning the races”. “At the end the answer was really clear”. With it, Ricciardo ended the race in fifth place while Bottas had to contend for sixth.
It cost them a victory in Australia, where Vettel switched to the super-soft tyres after the red-flag stoppage as both Mercedes’ drivers elected for mediums. Nasr was given a 10-seconds penalty. Torro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat had to retire as well due to a technical issue, while Pascal Wehrlein was asked to stop the auto at Lap 28 and switch off, ending his run. Please see our terms of service for more information.
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