Rosberg has that winning feeling again after Mexico
MEXICO CITY: After failing to convert his last three pole positions into victory, and making the mistake that helped Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton clinch his third world championship in Texas, Nico Rosberg needed to feel like a winner again.
In Mexico on Sunday, in front of the biggest crowd of the season, the German clambered back onto the top step of the podium and — wearing an oversized winner’s sombrero — celebrated.
“Just really, really happy to get the win and this is really the best podium of the year, what a place to do it,” he told the 135,000-strong crowd.
Last weekend, he barely moved on the podium while others sprayed champagne.
Starting on pole position for the fourth race in a row, and with the team admitting to some trepidation after he and Hamilton had banged wheels into the first corner in Austin, he made a clean getaway.
Only once, at the first pitstop, did he lose the lead and that was only momentarily.
“I’ve been working on it (the start) to try and get everything perfect and today it worked out to be first and that was important, maybe the most important part of the race, so I’m very happy about that,” he said.
In Austin, he had been leading when seven laps from the end he went wide, a mistake he blamed on a sudden gust of wind, and Hamilton cashed in to take his third successive race victory.
Angered by that error, he petulantly threw back at Hamilton a cap the Briton had tossed to him before the podium ceremony.
Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, himself a triple champion, said in his usual blunt fashion how important the Mexico result was to the German in terms of resetting his personal compass.