Hamilton, who is chasing a fourth world title and third in a row, added: “It was a tough day today, but it always is in Singapore”.
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Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton could do little at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday to prevent Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg from leapfrogging him in the Formula One standings but the Briton will not give up his title without a fight.
But Hamilton regained third after the third and final stops. “It’s going to go down the wire”, he insisted. “In the past the Singapore track has not treated me so well, so this win is a very special one and an even more emotional one for me”. I’m going to celebrate after this.
“I can’t wait to get home, and the next stop is Malaysia”.
“I couldn’t come in because I had traffic, I was very slow on the lap and he would have beaten me”.
Despite leading from pole, Wolff became concerned about Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton’s auto after it was revealed that they were having an issue with their brakes.
It was on the occasion of his 200th career grand prix, but earlier Hamilton had answered “Not really” when asked if he wanted to congratulate Rosberg on the milestone.
“The weekend started perfectly with a good qualifying session”. Towards the end I got some heat in them.
It wasn’t smooth sailing all the way though, especially in the final stages of the race when Ricciardo started to pick up speed.
Another safety vehicle phase might have ruined Rosberg’s chances but Mercedes could breathe a sigh of relief as the German, no longer nursing his brakes, took the chequered flag just ahead of Ricciardo. “We got within half a second but after the race I said on the radio to the team that we’ll win this year”.
“I think we did the right thing in the end”.
“It has been an awesome weekend here in Singapore for me, already yesterday with the pole lap and then today, a great start, had a good auto in the race”. With six races left this season, Rosberg has snagged the momentum from teammate Lewis Hamilton.
However, the move would unintentionally offer Red Bull – running second with Daniel Ricciardo – to attempt the same strategy against Mercedes’ race leading Nico Rosberg.
“We have a good vehicle. So that’s really awesome to see that”.
Daniil Kvyat has had the look of a broken man after struggling to settle back in at Toro Rosso after being replaced at Red Bull by Max Verstappen.
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It really shows that not only do we have the best auto but we also have the most competent group of engineers to extract the potential from the best vehicle.
