The win marks Rosberg’s second consecutive Brazilian Grand Prix victory, the 13th win and 40th podium finish of his Formula One career to date.
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Hamilton had a sniff at passing Rosberg when the German missed the apex at Turn One midway through this penultimate race of the season – but that was largely as good as it got for the world champion.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished third and teammate Kimi Raikkonen fourth.
Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton lost to Nico Rosberg for the second race in succession to place second at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Silver Arrows’ strategy calls became a talking point in Brazil on Sunday when Hamilton asked for tactical freedom during the race in a bid to overhaul Rosberg in a fight for the lead – a request the team ultimately denied.
“If only you could see the air around us you could see the dirty air and I end up losing the downforce and damaging my tyres even more”.
Lewis Hamilton wants Formula One’s technical rules to be changed to make it more exciting.
Rosberg showed little joy in finishing second in the championship nor his pyrrhic victory.
“I love this track, it’s such a great circuit, but unfortunately it’s so hard to overtake”, the Briton lamented, “You get to within a second and you just lose downforce and there’s no way you can get any closer. But Nico has done a fantastic job this weekend”.
“Since Singapore, there have been a few changes to our auto which seem to have shifted the direction of the ways [the respective fortunes of himself and Rosberg], so I need to figure out why that is and how I can get back on it”.
The race victor, who also won in Interlagos past year, has attempted to play down that latter suggestion.
Through the second stints Hamilton was right on Rosberg’s tail, often running less than a second behind, but as is so often the case it wasn’t easy for him to run in his rival’s slipstream without damaging his tires.
“Lewis put up a good challenge but I was able to control him”.
“It feels great to win the races, for sure”. “And when you have the same strategy, it’s set from the beginning”. Hülkenberg, surprisingly, has been second best to his team-mate Sergio Pérez for most of the season.
“With the relatively slender margin we had to the Ferrari, it was much safer to mimic his stops”, Wolff said.
He then repeated the move again on Sauber’s Felipe Nasr later in the race to ensure he split the Lotus cars of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.
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“I think both drivers know what we expect of them and the responsibility they have to the team”. “They have switched around because now he is happy with the vehicle and now he’s two tenths quicker”.
