Nico Rosberg headed to the United States Grand Prix knowing that he need only finish behind ttile rival Lewis Hamilton in the remaining four races to clinch the 2018 Formula 1 world championship title and in the end that’s exactly what he did.
The Mercedes driver finished second, but made his afternoon’s work hard by slipping to third as he exited the first corner on the first lap. Nevertheless he soldiered on as the team tweaked his strategy enough to ensure he finished second – this is his story.
We’ve got to talk about the start You got away well, you went across to the outside and Daniel came up the inside. Talk us through it.
NR: Yeah, got away really well. Not quite enough to give it a go down the inside so Lewis would just have closed so no point in trying that so just went round the outside. All was looking good, actually, I just struggled for a bit of grip then out of the corner and Daniel had that extra grip and that’s it. We knew that that was going to be a risk with that supersoft. Then flat out after that and it worked out of course with the VSC.
You knew the recovery strategy was obviously based on the medium tyre, you were playing a long game but you were very quick on the medium tyre as well. Once you got onto it, you presumably knew that you were going to finish second.
NR: Yeah, I felt really good out there in the car, we found a great balance and I was feeling really comfortable and so I was just able to push really well and so that was a good feeling, yeah.
You put in another one-two for Mercedes; do you feel like you’ve lost any momentum after this race this weekend, heading into Mexico?
NR: I just feel that it’s a pity that it didn’t work out with a win this weekend. I was going for that. It would have been awesome here in America but it didn’t work out. Lewis did a great job this weekend, all the way through, qualifying and race so it just wasn’t to be. I’ll live with second place now and next race is another great opportunity.
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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