The German held off Red Bull’s late-charging Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.4 of a second to win his third straight race and establish an eight-point lead over Formula One title-holder Hamilton in the standings. With Ricciardo closing the gap by around 3 seconds every lap, Rosberg was facing a tough task in the final laps.
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“I’ve known Nico since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout a weekend since then”, said Wolff.
“Nico was six-tenths quicker than P2 in qualifying, something we are not used to seeing in Singapore, and in the same way he drove the race”, said Wolff. 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 vehicle and enhance Alonso’s chances of winning.
“I think we did the right thing in the end”.
Wolff also reckoned that you could not read too much in to Hamilton’s recent run of defeats – because his chance at Spa was hit by engine penalties and his result in Italy was wrecked by a poor start.
“I had some pretty intense battles which I enjoy but it’s tricky to pass here, so you do get a bit stuck”.
“As soon as did a pit stop we thought Nico would come in”.
Set up and preparation is hugely important for Mercedes to judge tyre degradation and brake wear which impacted Hamilton throughout the race. “Now we have had a mega Nico weekend and we could see a change again in Malaysia”. “I was still getting warnings to the end but, the last ten laps, I just let them continue flashing as a warning and hoped for the best”. Once I did my second or third stop we managed to sort it out. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg tried to get through a narrowing gap between the two Toro Rossos but clipped a tire on Carlos Sainz Jr.’s vehicle and speared heavily into the pitlane wall.
However, as race leader Nico Rosberg crossed the line at the restart a marshal was sprinting across the track, reaching the other side before the Mercedes arrived.
Last year’s race victor Sebastian Vettel drove brilliantly from last on the starting grid to claim fifth place in the other Ferrari, the German coming home ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in a McLaren.
Hamilton had endured a frustrating weekend in practice and qualifying and became increasingly irate at not being able to get past Ricciardo.
“I want to see how good he is and see if he can make the Mercedes disappear”, joked Ecclestone.
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“We have got six races left, so I’ve just got to keep pushing in those six races”.
