ROSBERG EYES MEXICO VICTORY
Driver’s sights set on victory after lucky break in US race
NICO Rosberg will be aiming for nothing less than an outright victory against his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton when they take their world title duel to Mexico next weekend. In the wake of Hamilton’s dominant victory at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, the championship-leading German admitted he was disappointed to finish only second and owed that result to a virtual safety car intervention when he was running third. “It was a help for me, for sure,” he said. “I wanted to win, but I am glad to limit the damage too – but I will be trying to go for a victory in Mexico. I really want to go there and win.”
Rosberg acknowledged that the safety car, deployed when Dutch teenager Max Verstappen retired with a gearbox failure and parked his Red Bull by the side of the track at the Circuit of the Americas, played a key part in his finishing second and not third.
It enabled him to take a “free” pit stop that changed the shape of the race and wrecked the hopes of Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, of finishing second behind Hamilton.
By finishing second, Rosberg lost seven points to defending three-times champion Hamilton rather than 10 if he had been third – a key factor in the championship as it means his lead was trimmed to 26 points with three races remaining, instead of 23. A race victory is worth 25 points. Rosberg can take the title with a victory in Mexico if the Briton fails to score, by increasing his lead to 51 points with two races to go – a scenario that would have been impossible if he finished third.
“It is all part of the strategy in a race,” Rosberg said.
“When you go long [in a stint], you know there is a small chance of being able to benefit from those scenarios, as well as being able to give it a run at the end of the race. “It came at the right moment for me.” Hamilton’s first win in six races kept his challenge alive, but he knows Rosberg can take the title by finishing second behind him if he wins all three remaining races.
Rosberg, however, had no intention of taking a conservative route to his maiden championship win.
“No, I don’t see it like that,” he said, when asked if he felt that finishing second on Sunday was “mission accomplished”.
“I wanted to win the US Grand Prix and it didn’t work out . . . But Lewis did a great job, it was his weekend. When I get to . . . Mexico, I’m just going to go for the win.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted Rosberg was lucky to take second thanks to the virtual safety car. “I think it would have been a very different result without that,” he said. “We haven’t been very lucky in the last few races, so we will take that.”
That most of Mercedes’ bad luck has been had by Hamilton with a series of engine failures and poor starts was not highlighted by Wolff who said that he expected Red Bull to be a threat in the final races.
“They have done a good job and they have closed up to us . . . It is going to be very difficult in the last three races.” – AFP