The German managed to take the chequered flag just 0.488secs before the fast-finishing Ricciardo in a thrilling climax to the race and Rosberg has now leapfrogged his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to lead the Drivers’ Standings.
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Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo dwelt on the positives of a second-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix after a bold tyre strategy fell agonisingly short on Sunday, as pole sitter Nico Rosberg held on for a narrow victory.
“He started on the back foot by not having enough laps”, acknowledged Wolff after the race.
Lewis Hamilton completed the podium in third, but lost the championship lead to Rosberg. The tyre lasted just right so I’m very happy of course.
“But, in the end, I came out of it with a big smile”.
“It was partly because of the fresh tires, but mostly because the vehicle was getting lighter, the brakes became a lot easier to control”.
The Briton finished third for the third successive race, with many wondering if he has it in him to retain the title this year.
The start of the Singapore Grand Prix also saw a scary moment for one of the track marshals, who found himself in the middle of the start-finish straight clearing debris when the race was resumed.
“At the start I managed to avoid the debris that came from the incident involving Hulkenberg, but after that I picked up a penalty for passing under the safety auto”, said Ocon.
This year’s event attracted 73,000 spectators daily, with 219,000 spectators over the three-day race weekend – a 15 per cent drop in average attendance amid a weaker local and global economic climate.
“We couldn’t come in because I had traffic so I was very slow on that lap and he would have beaten me. Today we gained one place from the starting position, but of course this is not the result we are looking for, we are trying to be in position to win, but we need to make the auto a bit faster”. “Some weekends he does great, some weekends I do great”.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a poor start from P4 and slipped to eighth. Obviously overtaking here is rare, but I was able to get a couple of guys especially after Turn 7 and then it was quite interesting, the fight I had with Esteban (Gutierrez, Haas) and Carlos (Sainz, Toro Rosso). Then throughout the race I wasn’t really thinking about what happens when I catch him I was just focusing on trying to catch him and put some pressure on.
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“We need to start coming out with some plan because this is all the pace I’ve got with the brakes”, demanded the championship leader on the radio.
