“It has been an awesome weekend here in Singapore for me, already yesterday with the pole lap and then today, a great start, had a good auto in the race”.
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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 Daniel Ricciardo at the first turn and ended up fighting with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the final podium spot.
“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.
“We have a good auto and we’ve got to have a good weekend”, Hamilton told reporters as he looked ahead to the next race in Malaysia.
Rosberg’s third victory in a row, and 22nd of his career, lifted him on to 273 points, eight clear of Hamilton, with six rounds remaining and Australia’s Ricciardo a distant third on 179 in the title race. “There’s still a long way to go and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got”.
“I’m not focused on points”. I can’t wait to get home.
As the drivers were given the signal to restart, a marshal was forced to sprint to safety towards the barriers as the field, led by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, hurtled towards him.
A disappointed Hamilton said: “A really tough weekend for me but huge congratulations to Nico”.
Hamilton conceded that Rosberg was the better man across the weekend, and the image of the two embracing on the podium suggested a much calmer relationship between the two than in recent seasons.
“This is what we have seen with Nico this weekend – he was just blindingly fast, was [nearly] six tenths quicker than P2 in qualifying in Singapore, something we are not used to seeing at all here”.
“In the same way, he drove the race, he had a great start, controlled the race, and on the contrary Lewis didn’t have a clean weekend”.
He found himself on the track after Nico Hulkenberg had crashed at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Wolff defended Hamilton’s performance, and there was an air of relief surrounding the Briton in that he didn’t lose a huge chunk of ground on his teammate, but he will still need yet another swing in momentum in order to get back on top of the championship battle.
“He started off on the wrong foot and couldn’t recover, and in Singapore if you are lacking laps in free practice and you are lacking direction where to take the set-up, it is a vicious circle.
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.
“Confidence is key and if your team-mate gets out of the blocks like Nico did this weekend it becomes hard and Lewis was first to admit that”.
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“These things happen. I feel optimistic and good at this track so we’ll see”.
