If Nico Rosberg believes in omens, then they are looking good for his Formula One world championship title. The Mercedes man’s victory Sunday made him the first non-champion to win in Singapore — and the winning driver on the Marina Bay street circuit has gone on to win the title in four of the last five years. Since the summer break, the German has also chalked up his first wins in Belgium and Italy. Now he will be aiming for similar premiere victories on the next three circuits in Malaysia, Japan and the United States. Rosberg’s 22nd grand prix victory in his 200th race now puts him eight points clear of world champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton with six races left.
The next three races though are on tracks which have often been in Hamilton’s hands. He won in Malaysia in 2014 and was runner-up to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel last year; he is a three-time winner in Japan and won the last two editions; and he is a four-time US winner and also won the last two on the circuit in Austin, Texas.
Yet Rosberg is not looking too far ahead in his moment of triumph, saying he was enjoying the moment and not focusing on world championship points.
“Nothing has changed, My teammate is still Lewis and he is still difficult to beat. He always comes back strong from difficult weekends,” Rosberg said.
It was a tense finish for Rosberg in the end after leading from pole position. A late pit stop by Daniel Ricciardo saw the Red Bull driver eat up the gap in the final laps to finish less than half a second behind Rosberg.
Mercedes felt unable at that stage to give Rosberg new tyres, but the German had enough in reserve to hold on. Hamilton, meanwhile, had managed to undercut Ferrari’s Kim Raikkonen with a late tyre change to finish third.
Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff said: “By undercutting Kimi we actually triggered the situation that Daniel pitted — and Nico couldn’t. Because he would have won the race if we had pitted Nico. So it was a pretty edgy situation that in the end proved to be the right one.”
Wolff also believes the momentum between Rosberg and Hamilton could continue to swing backwards and forwards.
“We don’t have the tendency to talk about one of our drivers up and the other down. “We have had these situations for three years since they are fighting for the title every year. We have seen these kinds of waves before.”
But even he acknowledges Rosberg is certainly mounting his strongest challenge yet after coming off second best to Hamilton in the past two seasons.
“I have known Nico since 2013 and yes it is the best Nico Rosberg that I have ever seen since then.”
The remaining races in the championship are set for some great competition.