After a chaotic start that brought out a safety vehicle on the opening lap, Rosberg stayed clear of Red Bull’s late-charging Daniel Ricciardo at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit.
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That meant Rosberg’s lead at the front extended to 20-seconds for the first time, and although Mercedes nearly pitted the German, they opted not to at the last moment, meaning Ricciardo had a big gap to close but had fresh tyres to do so.
“We have the tendency of saying that Lewis has an awesome pace, and this is what we have seen with Nico this weekend – he was just blindingly fast”, added the Austrian.
“Of course Daniel tried to pull one on me at the end but we managed to hold him off – I’m really, really happy”, he said. “The whole vehicle was on the edge, and the win was all the more satisfying”. “It’s all the more satisfying with a race like that”.
I think just as we didn’t expect the restart, he didn’t either, because the restart was somehow pretty abrupt.
Hamilton then found himself under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen’s super-soft-shod Ferrari, which got past just after half-distance after a lock-up from the Mercedes.
However, the advantage of the new tyres soon diminished hugely and although Rosberg was pushed all the way, Ricciardo juts could not close the gap fully.
Hamilton was hampered by a brake problem which he was urged to manage by his Mercedes team from the outset of the race.
“Definitely not [a great weekend] but firstly big congratulations to Nico – he drove fantastically all weekend”, said Hamilton.
Hamilton had endured a frustrating weekend in practice and qualifying and was becoming increasingly irate at not being able to get past Ricciardo.
After Nico Hulkenberg was spun into the pit wall at the start the Safety Car was deployed, with the race restarting three laps later.
When the race restarted on lap three, Rosberg darted away into the lead only for there to be a heart-stopping moment.
The German, who started Sunday’s race in pole position, had to withstand a late surge from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo to eventually claim the victory by precisely 0.488 seconds.
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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.
