With Rosberg forced to brazen it out to the end on old Soft tyres, he crossed the line less than a second ahead of the Red Bull. Wolff highlighted Rosberg’s impressive form, and explained the thought process behind their strategy: “Nico did a ideal job all weekend – after the stunning lap yesterday in qualifying, he managed his race in the most controlled way today, all the way to the final metres”.
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“It has been an awesome weekend in Singapore for me”, said Rosberg, who has won the last three races since the summer break.
Mercedes had meant to bring leader Rosberg in after Ricciardo stopped at the end of lap 47, when the German would have completed a 15-lap stint on soft-compound Pirellis, but it abandoned the plan when it became clear the Red Bull driver was likely to jump ahead.
“Today, great start, I had a good auto in the race”.
“But all in all, with everything that’s gone on this year, I’m still in the fight, there’s still a long way to go and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got”. Just some good weekends which we’ve had in the past. I pushed so much at the end with that supersoft and really tried to do something but it wasn’t close enough. “His win was fully deserved”.
The Dutchman began the race fourth, but made a poor start and was in eighth when an early safety auto was called for a big crash that ended Nico Hulkenburg’s race.
Explaining the situation after the race, the FIA, whilst blaming no particular individual, said a circuit official had instructed the marshal to head back out on track, despite the “track clear” warning having sounded three times.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a poor start from P4 and slipped to eighth.
Hamilton, struggling with overheating brakes, had dropped to 13 seconds behind Rosberg and was coming under attack for third place by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. “Once I did my second or third stop we managed to sort it out”. “I expect him to continue like that so I’ve got make sure that I do the same”.
But there was nothing he could do as Raikkonen took advantage when Hamilton locked up under braking on lap 33.
The top four were all running soft tyres, and looked set to go till chequered flag when Mercedes made the call to put Hamilton on a three-stop strategy on lap-46 to recover third.
He regained the position on the third and final stops. But, with the back-markers’ traffic, there was a threat of his losing the lead, and the team chose to keep him out on old tyres.
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Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth while teammate and last year’s victor Sebastian Vettel finished fifth after starting last on the grid, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sixth.
