Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg celebrated his 200th Formula One start by taking victory in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and regaining the championship lead from teammate Lewis Hamilton.
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Wolff was delighted to see his drivers finish first and third after struggling at the circuit a year ago but race victor Nico Rosberg suffered an almighty scare from a fast-charging Daniel Ricciardo with fresher tyres in his Red Bull.
As for Mercedes’ decision not to cover Ricciardo’s fourth pit stop, Rosberg revealed that traffic prevented him from doing so.
That’s 22 wins now for Rosberg – 13th on the all-time list Equal with Damon Hill, in fact.
While Rosberg has the momentum after having won the last three races, Wolff remained convinced that the championship was likely to go all the way to the last race in Abu Dhabi.
“He (Rosberg) was really great all weekend”. He has 273 points after 15 races, ahead of Hamilton (265) and Ricciardo (179).
The Mercedes teammates had struggled with brake temperatures during the race, but both drivers still finished on the podium. But a strategic call to undercut Raikkonen at his next stop gave Hamilton the place back and he eventually finished two seconds ahead.
At this point, Mercedes chose to switch Hamilton’s strategy and unleashed him from managing his tyres and told him to close on Raikkonen. Follow all the lap-by-lap coverage as it happens.
Triple world champion Hamilton completed the podium in third place.
There was drama from the start as Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India ran into Carlos Sainz Jr’s Toro Rosso and spun out spectacularly, causing the safety auto to come out on the first lap.
The fight had added needle because of the Russian’s demotion in Verstappen’s favour after four races this season and after Kvyat had squeezed Verstappen close to the wall on a couple of occasions to keep him behind, the Dutchman complained over team radio.
The start was bad luck for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was relegated from fourth on the grid to eighth as he took evasive action as Hulkenberg span past his front wing.
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.
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Red Bull opted for a bold tyre strategy to put pressure on Rosberg late on and Ricciardo was eating into the advantage at roughly three seconds a lap in the closing stages but ran out of road before the chequered flag.
