The German moved eight points clear at the top of the Drivers’ Championship with his third successive race victory, taking full advantage of starting on pole to secure his first career victory at the Marina Bay street circuit.
Advertisement
Rosberg crossed the finish line in first with Ricciardo in second and Lewis Hamilton in third.
Singapore, Sep 19: Nico Rosberg led from beginning to end to win the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday (Sep 18) and re-take the lead of the Formula One Drivers’ World Championship from his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
“I’ve known Nico since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout a weekend since then”, explained Wolff.
With a sizeable chunk of the record, 21-race season still to go, starting in neighbouring Malaysia in two weeks, Hamilton said he would take the positives from a hard weekend fraught with mechanical issues.
“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”.
The Briton took solace from the fact that Mercedes have the best auto, and also that the topsy-turvy season had taught him eight points was not much of a lead. “We knew it was going to be tight at the end, but it worked out, so I’m really, really happy”, Rosberg was quoted as saying by Formula One official website. “We’ve got to have a good weekend”, said Hamilton, who lost half his Friday practice running with a hydraulic failure that limited his ability to fine-tune the car’s set-up.
Despite trailing Rosberg by eight points in the Championship, Hamilton struck an upbeat note when asked if he believed he could overhaul his German rival before the final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on November 27. “I expect him to continue like that so I’ve got to make sure that I do the same”.
Hamilton had to recuperate during the race, and managed to get to third place after a superb strategy from his team.
“The brakes became a lot easier to control”.
Hamilton complained the problem of overheating brakes, also suffered by Rosberg, was hampering drivers – and it would get worse with heavier cars to be introduced next year.
Advertisement
“At that moment we concentrated on getting Lewis back to third but equally I think that Ricciardo or Red Bull at that stage thought about pitting him. Obviously we came here to win and we didn’t but I felt we left it all on the track”.
