Nico Rosberg on his way to winning the Grand Prix of Singapore. [photo by Sutton Images]
With his tires wearing down and Daniel Ricciardo closing in, Nico Rosberg kept his cool to hold off the Red Bull driver to win the Grand Prix of Singapore by only four tenths of a second Saturday evening at Marina Bay. Lewis Hamilton struggled with his brakes all night, but held on to finish third.
The Victory by Rosberg was his eighth of the year, and now puts him back into the world championship lead by eight points over Hamilton with six races left in the season.
“It was an awesome race for me here in Singapore and I had a good car in the race, and of course Daniel (Ricicardo) was trying to pull a fast one from me, and it really worked out. Really, really happy.” Stated Rosberg afterwards. “I could not come in because I had traffic. The whole car was on the edge, and the win was all the more satisfying.”
Rosberg held the race for most of the night, with only losing his position during his scheduled pits stops and even during the only safety car period in the race on the opening lap, when Nico Hulkenberg got sandwiched in between the Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Dani Kvyat, spinning around and striking the wall.
However, it did not take long for the track to be cleaned up, and Rosberg continued his domination, but realized with a three second gap on lap nine that his brakes were beginning to wear down fast, and even if he began to solve this problem, the later part of the race developed another situation: tire wear. As Rosberg began to take care of his tires, Ricciardo still had fresh rubber from a later stop, and began to close in on Rosberg , starting on lap 51. But it turned out to be too late, as Rosberg, although he would have lost the race if he would have pitted, regained his composure, even passing later back markers, to just edge out Ricciardo, who would have wished that the race could have lasted a few laps longer.
“We came very close this year on numerous occasions, but I am not going to stand up here and be disappointed.” Said Ricciardo. “We gave it a good shot, and we had a good strategy. It was close and we are up here again. It feels great, and I am seeing more and more Australian Flags. Thank You very much.”
Kimi Raikkonen had a fantastic race, but could not manage to pass Hamilton and finished off the podium in fourth, while Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who started the race in last, made a heroic effort to take fifth. Max Vertsappen had a poor start, but recovered to finish sixth, while Fernando Alonso received more points by taking seventh. Sergio Perez was eighth, and Kvyat took ninth, his best finish under Toro Rosso. Kevin Magnussen took the last point position, the first points for Renault since Russia last May.
For Rosberg, who regains his lead in the world championship, it might be something he will be thinking about. But for the moment, the idea to him is to take one thing at a time.
“I am not really focused on points,” he said, “But I am happy that I won today.”
Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.