But no one needed to tell you that, because you knew it would either be him or his teammate, Lewis Hamilton.
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Rosberg’s win puts him eight points in front of Hamilton, and Hamilton’s apparent inability to perform this weekend does perhaps auger a change in pack dominance at Mercedes.
“It really worked out at the end, the tyres lasted just right so I am very happy of course”. “I couldn’t come in at the same time as Daniel because I was in traffic”.
“The whole vehicle was on the edge, it always is here in Singapore, so it’s very satisfying to finish like that”, Rosberg told reporters. “It’s all the more satisfying with a race like that”.
Early on in the stint Ricciardo had been taking over 3.5 seconds a lap of Rosberg’s lead, which had been around 25 seconds when he pitted.
Ricciardo’s Red Bull team followed suit and the Australian nearly took full advantage as he closed on Rosberg in the final few laps but the latter was able to just about hang on for a vital win.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described the incident as “dangerous” but said teams had been urging the FIA to ensure races restarted quickly.
“Statistics like that are not something I focus on, it doesn’t have any importance to me”, Rosberg, 31, said, in response to The New Paper’s question at the post-race press conference last night.
“We tried something different with strategy and got to within half a second, it was close”, Ricciardo said.
“It’s been a tricky weekend for me but I’m glad to get points for my team”.
On Sunday, Hamilton started third on the grid and was unable to get anywhere near Rosberg once he failed to get past Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo at the first turn and ended up fighting with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the final podium spot.
It was a fairly routine run to second place for the Australian, having started there on the grid, but it was far more hard for team mate Max Verstappen, who came sixth under the lights. Sergio Perez’s Force India came across eighth, followed by Daniil Kvyat’s Torro Rosso. Kevin Magnussen took the last point position, the first points for Renault since Russian Federation last May.
After watching his 19-point lead evaporate over the last three races – all won by Rosberg – since the summer break, Hamilton insists he is not too concerned.
“At various times it was worse for one than the other, but it was the same thing”.
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“It’s not as tough as you think, I don’t know why”, Hamilton said.
