Nico Rosberg led from start to finish to win the Singapore Grand Prix and celebrate his 200th Formula One race by retaking the championship lead from Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton. It means Rosberg now leads the championship by eight points. The Australian fell just short, and that may well have been his last chance to win a race in 2016, but the Red Bull Racing man can be proud of his efforts and after a strong recent run of results he will hopefully have a championship-challenging vehicle at his disposal next year.
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“I guess the thing that pops to mind is how much worse it’s going to be next year with a heavier vehicle”. I can’t wait to get home. “Obviously it still didn’t give us victory but I think staying on the same tyre probably wouldn’t have given us any better chance”.
Despite Rosberg’s increasingly impressive form, Hamilton, gunning for his third straight world title and fourth overall, said “with a good weekend” in each of the last six races he could again recover the deficit.
“Today, great start, I had a good vehicle in the race”.
Speaking after the race, Ricciardo admitted a slight tinge of disappointment not to win, but said he had a good race and wouldn’t leave with any regrets.
It proved a tense finish as traffic prevented Rosberg pitting for new tyres near the end and Ricciardo, after his stop, closed the gap from more than 20 seconds to mere fractions over the final 14 laps.
“It’s a lot different to when I was here past year”, said Hamilton, who emerged from the 2015 Singapore race with a 41-point lead over Rosberg despite retiring.
“I pushed so much at the end on the supersoft and really tried to do something but it wasn’t close enough”.
“By the time I started the last lap, I knew it was going to be enough because Daniel’s tyres weren’t that fresh anymore”.
Hamilton complained the problem of overheating brakes, also suffered by Rosberg, was hampering drivers – and it would get worse with heavier cars to be introduced next year. “We have the tendency to say that Lewis has awesome pace and this is what we have seen with Nico this weekend – he was just blindingly fast”.
“Last year we were absolutely nowhere here, we got destroyed by the Red Bulls and Ferraris, and we understood what we did wrong”.
“We have come close on numerous occasions but I am not disappointed”, said Ricciardo on the podium.
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Damon Hill told the same source the “bad luck” Hamilton has suffered in 2016 has been a major factor in Rosberg’s turnaround, but the 1996 world champion agreed that the latter is beginning to grow into the stature of a world champion.
