“He had a great start and controlled the pace”.
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Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo closely followed Rosberg, ranking the second and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton finally anchored the third place.
“It’s been an awesome weekend in Singapore”, Rosberg said.
Rosberg kept his lead from pole following the safety auto when the restart saw a marshal still on the track but able to run to safety as cars approached.
“In two weeks we are going to see whether that changes or stays the same in Malaysia”.
“Struggled with the balance, struggled getting on to the pace myself and then in the race struggled with the brakes, which meant I had to drive slow until they cooled down, which they never did until close to the end”, he said.
Rosberg celebrated his 200th grand prix by qualifying seven tenths of a second faster than Hamilton before leading from the front to rack up his eighth victory of the season and his third in as many races since the summer break.
It’s a fearless commentator who would predict the ultimate victor in the Mercedes-dominated title battle in 2016, but if the second half of the Formula One season has shown anything it’s that Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull might be in the mix come the pointy end next season.
The safety auto was immediately out after Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg’s race ended after just a few seconds when he came off worse in a tangle with the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz. “I’m not thinking about that, just concentrating on my race weekend, just going for the race win and that’s what I’ve been doing and did also this week”.
“He started on the back foot by not having enough laps”, Wolff said after the race. Verstappen had a tussle with Daniil Kvyat, who he replaced in the Red Bull team earlier in the season, before overtaking both the Russian and Fernando Alonso to take a top six spot.
This left the German, on older tyres, vulnerable to attack from Ricciardo on fresher rubber as the Red Bull driver gained more than a second per lap. With it, he now has the lead in the F1 World Championship points standings, eight points ahead of Hamilton. “This weekend has just been a tricky one for me, but I’m still glad I could get back up on the podium and get some points for the team”, Hamilton said.
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“Confidence is key around Singapore and if your team-mate gets out of the block in the way Nico did this weekend, it becomes very hard”. We have had this since three years, since the two of them have been fighting for the championship, you have seen those waves.
