Lewis Hamilton finished third and now trails Rosberg by eight points in the drivers’ standings in the race for the title.
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Nico Rosberg won the Singapore Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday night to seize the drivers’ world championship lead from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third. Spain’s Fernando Alonso held his nerve to win the race, but his Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr later admitted that he purposefully crashed under team orders to bring out the safety auto and enhance Alonso’s chances of winning.
However, the 31-year-old maintained composure and clinched his eighth win of the season finishing 0.488s ahead of the Red Bull racer. When asked if that was a good omen, Rosberg refused to think too far ahead.
“Lewis is always going to be very hard to beat, and very fast”.
Rosberg said: “In the end, I did everything right, nailed all those laps, everything worked out and the management (of the tyres) all the way to the end, the tyres were just right”. “We gave it a good shot and got within half-a-second”.
As Mercedes was about to bring Rosberg in for his third stop, the result of the change of strategy for Hamilton, it became aware that due to an increase in pace from Ricciardo the German could not pit and retain his lead.
While his latest victory looked easy on the eye, the Mercedes pit was whirring with mathematical activity as engineers calculated just how much longer his fading brakes would last over 61 laps and with a determined Daniel Ricciardo breathing down his carbon fibre buttocks.
Wolff added that he expects the championship battle to “go down to the wire”, and also said that neither can afford off-weekends if they are to win the title come the end of the season. “It was just a bad weekend for him”. “So it was a pretty edgy situation that in the end proved to be the right one”.
The momentum swings have been considerable, and Wolff would not be surprised if the shift reverted back in Hamilton’s direction come the next race in Malaysia.
“Hats off to Red Bull for such an awesome attempt which they did to try and get us”. Since the two of them have been fighting for the championship, you have seen those waves. “We have seen these kinds of waves before”.
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Mercedes had meant to bring leader Rosberg in after Ricciardo stopped at the end of lap 47, when the German would have completed a 15-lap stint on soft-compound Pirellis, but it abandoned the plan when it became clear the Red Bull driver was likely to jump ahead.
