“It’s been an awesome weekend for me and the vehicle has been fantastic”, he said.
Advertisement
“But there are still 17 races to go, and still 17 races I can give him hell”. He’s on it and as motivated as ever. The Red Bull man would get a 10-second penalty.
The German driver has been clocked the best lap time of 1 minute 35:417 seconds in the qualification session on Saturday to take the pole position and eventually take the top spot in the race.
Rosberg also won the final three races of last season but that was after Hamilton had already claimed the title, while the Briton has suffered two engine failures this year.
“The vehicle felt good”. “Without that, I wouldn’t have got to this point”.
It was Grosjean’s third point-scoring result in the four races for the new Banbury team, as he climbed to seventh in the driver standings.
Rosberg told Sky Sports F1: “I can’t say l miss it [fighting with Hamilton] because it is awesome to win races and in the end it doesn’t matter how”.
But Rosberg’s victory extended his championship lead to 43 points.
Kimi Raikkonen took third behind the Mercedes pair for Ferrari’s 700th podium finish.
Hamilton then began the chase, trying to cut down Rosberg’s advantage of 12s.
Hamilton was fifth after a chaotic start to the race and then pushed hard to move up to second after his single pit stop. However, he remained 13 seconds behind Rosberg at the halfway point. The water pressure problem raised the specter of a repeat failure and ended the battle for the lead.
The German equalled the achievement of compatriot Michael Schumacher in winning seven successive races, with only Vettel (nine in 2013 with Red Bull) and the late Italian Alberto Ascari ahead of them. He had to settle for second behind his teammate, and though Mercedes would yet again claim a 1-2 finish, Hamilton himself would have to settle for second by almost 30 seconds.
Raikkonen’s team-mate Vettel was taken out by two separate clashes with Kvyat on the first lap.
And while Vettel is no stranger to fighting his way to the front from the midfield, his run was abruptly ended at lap two when Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat made contact with his auto twice, first sending his vehicle towards Kvyat’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo and then sending him crashing into the barriers. Vettel vented his anger at the poor driving.
“But we have a great team behind us and I’m fully confident that we will sort this out”. Kvyat was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for his errors.
Commenting on the incident between Russia’s Kvyat and titled racer Vettel, Coulthard said it “was just a coincidence rather than because they just don’t like each other”. “I don’t think things can be explained as bad luck as there are mostly human mistakes behind the story”, he added.
Advertisement
His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was also damaged in the first-lap chaos and finished 11th. Force India’s Sergio Perez was ninth. “But I had a problem with the engine so I had to back off – I wasn’t full throttle down the straights”.
